i)iwt/r^in^f':rf 


OLD 


LIBRARY  OF  |«?WJ«CS^ffQjW 


NOV  f  2  2009 


THEOLOOlCAtSewlNAHV 


LD4607  .A37 
Alexander,  James  W. 
(James  Waddel),  1839-1915. 
Princeton — old  and  new. 
Recollections  of 
undergraduate  life. 


/-'^<^^K 


Co, 


^ 


Princeton  — old  and  New 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/princetonoldnewrOOalex 


THE   SESQUICENTENNIAL. 

President  Cleveland  Reviewing  the  Torch-light  Procession  of  Alumni  and  Students, 
October  21,  1896. 


Princeton— Old  and  New 

Recollections  of 
Undergraduate  Life 

By 

James  W.  Alexander,  A.  M. 


«-i9;?ARvoFPR,i,c£ro.. 


■"■'V    -  f     '^^^fnii  ., 


Illustrated  by  W.  R.  Leigh 

New  York 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons 
1898 


Copyright,  1898,  by 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons 


MANHATTAN  PRESS 

474  W.  BROADWAY 

NEW  YORK 


List  of  Illustrations 


The  Sesquicentennial Frontispiece 

President  Cleveland  Revieiving  the  Torch-light  Proces- 
sion of  Alumni  and  Students,  October  21,  1896. 

The  Old  Cannon  and  Murray  Hall     ....        x 


Three  Presidents 

Old  President's  House,  now  Dean's    .      .      .      . 

President  Patton  at  Prospect  —  Southwest  Piazza 

Whig  and   Clio  Halls,  with  Marquand  Chapel 
in  the  Distance 

Commencement  Day  —  Alexander  Hall 

Alexander  Hall,  showing  North  Front 

Alexander  Hall  —  the  Colonnade  . 

Prospect  Avenue,  showing  Club-houses 


FACING    PAGE 
2 


4 
6 

8 
10 
12 

H 
16 


FACING  PAGE 

Billiard-room  at  the  Old  Ivy  Club  (now  Colonial)  1 8 

Library  of  Tiger  Inn 20 

Nassau  Hall,  Princeton,  Erected  1756     .      .      .  22 

Cane    Spree    as  it  was   in    1876,    back  of  East 

College 30 

A  College  Room  on  Top  Floor  of  Witherspoon 

Hall 32 

Witherspoon  Hall 40 

Brown  Hall,  from  the  Archway  of  Dod  ...  44 

Senior   Singing  in  front  of  Old  North  —  Com- 
mencement Week 46 

The  Arnold  Guyot  Memorial  — a  Bronze  Tablet 

by  the  Late  Olin  Warner 54 

The  Presidents'  Row  —  Princeton  Cemetery      .  58 

Statue  of  McCosh  by  St.  Gaudens,  in  Marquand 

Chapel 62 

McCosh  Walk,  looking  East 64 

Marquand  Chapel  —  Morning  Prayers      ...  66 

The  New  University  Library         68 

viii 


FACING  PACK 

Blair  Hall 70 

A  Sunny  Morning  on  the  Front  Campus        ,      .  72 

Cannon  Exercises  on  Class  Day  —  the  Presenta- 
tion Oration 82 

Dennis  Sullivan 88 

Jimmy  Johnson 88 

The  Grill-room,  Princeton  Inn 90 

Trophy-room  in  Athletic  Club-house       ...  94 


'^^A 


The  Old  Cannon  and  Murray  Hall. 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

THE  ingredients  of  that  composite  Ibut 
intangible  thing  that  Princeton  men 
worship  under  the  endearing  name  of  ''Old 
J^assau''  are  so  numerous,  so  varied,  so  in- 
describable, that  it  would  be  next  to  im- 
possible to  take  them  apart  and  classify 
them.  Famous  men,  contributions  to  learn- 
ing and  science,  friendship,  escapades, 
hereditary  ties,  historic  links,  songs,  and 
thousands  of  characteristic  incidents  com- 
bine through  decades  and  centuries  to  form 
the  mystic  object  of  our  love. 

Besides  the  systematic  instruction  and 
research  which  go  on  in  all  colleges  and 
universities,  there  is  a  life  and  atmosphere 
which  is  characteristic  to  each,  and  which 
has  much  to   do  with  making  the  well- 


PEINCETOlSr  — OLD  AND  NEW 

rounded  man.  Who,  for  example,  shall 
measure  the  stimulus  of  pride  in  college 
colors?  It  is  only  in  modern  times  that 
distinctive  colors  have  become  an  accepted 
college  usage.  The  crimson  of  Harvard 
is  a  recent  thing.  They  used  to  sport  the 
magenta,  and  had  a  college  paper  of  that 
name,  afterward  changed  to  the  Crimson 
when  the  new  tint  was  adopted.  As  for 
Princeton,  it  is  less  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  since  she  discovered  that  she  had 
a  color.  It  was  there  all  the  time,  for 
the  Princeton  orange  was  hers  the  moment 
the  colonial  governor  Belcher  dubbed  the 
first  college  building  wdth  the  name  of 
Nassau.  But  for  more  than  a  century 
Princetonians  went  without  colors,  except- 
ing the  light  blue  of  Whig,  and  the  pink 
of  Clio,  Hall.  It  was  a  custom,  which  hun- 
dreds of  living  graduates  remember,  for  the 
students  to  wear  the  badges  of  those  re- 
nowned societies  on  all  public  occasions — 
that  of  Clio  being  an  oblong  pink  ribbon 

2 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

pinned  upon  the  lapel  of  the  coat;  and 
that  of  Whig,  a  long  and  flowing  mass  of 
looped  blue  ribbon  worn  on  the  wrist.  At 
last  the  orange  for  the  whole  College  as- 
serted its  prerogative,  and  the  society  badges 
almost  disappeared,  to  the  sorrow,  it  may 
be  added,  of  many  an  old  boy,  who,  return- 
ing to  the  College,  looks  for  them  in  vain. 
The  black  was  combined  with  the  orange 
by  way  of  relief  to  monotony,  although  it 
was  thought  to  be  on  historic  grounds. 

The  Princeton  colors  have  grown  spon- 
taneously into  the  college  life,  and  an  inter- 
esting and  learned  disquisition  by  Professor 
Allan  Marquand,  of  Princeton,  in  support 
of  orange  and  blue  as  the  veritable  colors 
of  the  house  of  Nassau,  will  hardly  change 
a  custom  which  has  been  gradually  but 
surely  intwined  with  the  life  of  a  genera- 
tion of  classes  and  embalmed  in  their 
songs.  The  only  way  in  which  the  colors 
of  Princeton  have  had  official  recognition  is 
in  the  action  taken  by  the  Board  of  Trus- 

3 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

tees  adopting  an  academic  costume  which 
indicates  the  degree  of  the  wearer  and  the 
Faculty  granting  it.  Orange  received  the 
stamp  of  approval  as  the  distinguishing 
color  in  the  hoods  which  form  a  part  of  the 
costume. 

Although  the  blue  and  pink  of  Whig  and 
Clio  Halls  have  yielded  to  the  orange  and 
black,  the  undergraduate  life  still  is 
strongly  leavened  by  those  influential  lit- 
erary bodies.  Who  can  wonder  at  the 
unique  celebrity  of  the  American  Whig 
and  Cliosophic  Societies  when  he  remem- 
bers that  Madison,  of  the  Class  of  1771, 
one  of  the  founders  of  Whig,  was  also 
the  statesman  who  furnished  the  basis  for 
the  noble  political  structure  represented 
by  the  American  Constitution ;  and  that 
Paterson,  of  the  Class  of  1763,  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  other,  was  the  chief  advo- 
cate with  Oliver  Ellsworth,  of  the  Class  of 
1766,  of  the  maintenance  of  State  sover- 
eignties, which  view  was  by  the  Federalist 

4 


'Q:/-'" 


anaiC 


Old  President's  House,  now  Dean's. 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Madison  fused  into  tlie  existing  composite 
plan?  These  two  societies  —  secret,  myste- 
rious, and  ever  in  dignified  rivalry  —  have 
formed  the  pivot  of  higher  intellectual  life 
at  Princeton  for  more  than  a  century.  The 
absence  of  chapters  of  the  minor  Greek  so- 
cieties represented  in  some  other  universi- 
ties is  a  hundred  times  made  up  by  these 
two  renowned  and  useful  organizations, 
exclusively  Princetonian  and  absolutely 
without  competition  elsewhere.  To  the 
training  in  literature,  oratory,  debate,  and 
parliamentary  proceeding  given  in  Whig 
and  Clio  Halls,  stimulated  as  it  is  by  the 
peculiar  atmosphere  of  tradition  and  schol- 
arship, generations  of  statesmen,  divines, 
and  leaders  of  men  have  justly  ascribed 
their  success. 

Intense  interest  has  been  always  taken 
by  the  students  in  the  division  of  college 
honors  between  the  members  of  Whig  and 
Clio  Halls.  On  Commencement  Bay,  when 
for  the  first  time  public  announcement  is 
5 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

made  of  the  successful  competitors  for  the 
long  list  of  fellowship  prizes  and  scholarly 
distinctions,  the  members  of  the  Halls 
group  themselves  respectively  in  different 
portions  of  the  building,  and,  as  each  name 
is  divulged,  vociferous  applause,  with  the 
Princeton  cheer,  issues  from  the  appropri- 
ate group.  A  printed  discussion  occurred 
in  1870,  each  Hall,  through  a  committee, 
claiming  historic  precedence.  The  contro- 
versy was  hot  and  the  language  used  not 
uniformly  temperate,  but  the  success  of  the 
societies  in  developing  talent  has  run  paral 
lei  with  the  accentuation  of  the  rivalry. 

Formerly  the  whole  College,  with  scarcely 
an  exception,  was  represented  in  the  Halls, 
and  the  students  were  divided  into  two 
opposing  camps.  It  was  hardly  practica- 
ble for  friends  to  continue  intimate  rela- 
tions if  they  belonged  to  different  Halls, 
and  it  was  a  thing  unknown  for  a  Whig 
to  room  with  a  Clio.  Some  fifty  years  ago 
a  leaf  from  one  of  the  Halls  blew  out  acci- 
6 


President  Fatten  at  Prospect  —  Southwest  Piazza. 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

dentally  into  tlie  Campus  and  was  picked  up 
by  a  member  of  the  other  society,  who,  in- 
stead of  returning  it,  and  not  quite  certain 
that  it  was  genuine,  showed  it  to  some  of  his 
own  society  members.  The  feeling  became  so 
strong  that  he  had  to  be  guarded  in  a  room 
for  nights,  the  society  to  which  the  paper 
belonged  refusing  apologies  from  the  other. 
The  trouble  was  very  detrimental  to  both 
Halls,  as  it  caused  the  breakiDg  up  of  the 
Annual  Celebration  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 
at  which  speeches  were  delivered  by  eight 
Juniors,  four  elected  by  the  members  of 
each  Hall.  The  choice  was  regarded  as  a 
signal  honor.  The  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  read,  the  Halls  alternating 
in  choosing  the  "  Reader."  The  Hall  hav- 
ing the    appointment  of  the    Reader   for 

1841  had,  curiously  enough,  selected  C , 

the  finder  of  the  lost  paper.  As  soon  as 
his  conduct  was  known,  a  meeting  was 
called  by  his  fellow-members  to  expel  him 
from  the  Hall ;  but  before  they  could  carry 
7 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

this  purpose  into  execution,  a  committee 
from  tlie  rival  Hall  demanded  C 's  with- 
drawal. This  produced  a  revulsion  of  feel- 
ing, and  compliance  was  refused.  The  re- 
sult was  a  failure  of  the  Celebration.  The 
next  year  the  Hall  which  had  appointed 
the  blackballed  Reader  claimed  the  right 
to  have  its  turn,  because  the  last  Reader 
who  had  served  was  from  the  other  Hall. 
This  was  followed  by  disputes,  and  the 
Celebration  was  abandoned  indefinitely. 

A  graduate  who  was  at  Princeton  during 
this  terrible  commotion  relates  that  ten  or 
twelve  years  after  leaving  college  he  joined 
the  most  prominent  social  club  in  New 
York,  and  on  entering  the  reading-room, 

one  evening,  whom  should  he  see  but  C 

himself,  who  had  become  a  physician  of 
repute!  The  graduate  —  full  of  the  old 
Princeton  feeling,  which  never  dies  in  a  son 
of  Nassau  —  was  so  shocked  that  it  was  as 
much  as  he  could  do  to   ''hold  himself 

down"  and  not  denounce  C then  and 

8 


u 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

there  as  unfit  for  the  company  of  gentlemen. 
But  sober  second  thought  came  to  his  res- 
cue, and  he  contented  himself  with  avoiding 
his  fellow  club-man. 

It  has  been  until  recently  the  custom  at 
Princeton  for  the  two  Halls  to  canvass  each 
incoming  class,  and  introduce  every  man 
into  one  or  the  other  society.  This  custom, 
fifty  years  ago,  used  to  be  called  ''hoax- 
ing," and  still  earlier  ''huxing."  The  prac- 
tice may  have  been  carried  to  an  extreme, 
for  the  committees  had  the  habit  of  ap- 
proaching students  before  they  came  to 
Princeton,  waylaying  them  at  the  station, 
and  pursuing  them  with  every  sort  of  sua- 
sion short  of  physical  force.  But  the  com- 
petition had  its  meritorious  side  :  it  left  no 
indifierent  men  in  college.  The  Halls,  a 
few  years  ago,  negotiated  a  treaty,  under 
which  all  canvassing  is  prohibited,  and  the 
students  are  left  to  apply  for  membership, 
as  in  the  higher  class  of  clubs.  It  cannot 
be  said,  without  qualification,  that  the  effect 
9 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

is  good.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
these  venerable  institutions  there  exists  a 
considerable  body  of  students  who  belong 
to  neither  society,  and  there  are  many  who 
would  enthusiastically  hail  the  abrogation 
of  the  treaty,  and  a  return  to  the  traditional 
habit,  which  would  doubtless  be  favorably 
toned  by  the  experience  of  recent  years. 

Old  Princetonians  miss  other  customs 
which  have  passed  away,  as,  for  example, 
the  annual  oration  before  the  two  societies 
—  one  year  by  a  Whig,  and  the  next  by  a 
Clio,  graduate.  Some  of  the  most  illustrious 
men  of  the  country  have  officiated  on  these 
occasions. 

In  oratory  and  debate  the  students  of 
Princeton  have  always  been  preeminent,  a 
fact  due  largely  to  the  Hall  training.  As 
far  back  as  1814,  General  Winfield  Scott, 
wounded,  on  his  way  from  the  battle  of 
Lundy's  Lane,  stopped  at  Princeton  and 
was  present  on  the  stage  at  Commencement. 
Bloomfield  Mcllvain,  the  Valedictorian,  a 

10 


Commencement  Day  —  Alexander  Hall, 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

man  who  liad  become  a  ready  debater 
through  his  Hall  experience,  suddenly 
stopped  in  his  speech  and  apostrophized 
Scott  as  the  patriot  soldier  in  a  panegyric 
which  electrified  both  the  hero  and  the  au- 
dience, the  former  stating  afterward  that  he 
was  more  appalled  than  if  he  had  been 
confronted  by  a  British  regiment. 

In  literature,  too,  the  influence  of  the 
Halls  has  been  important,  the  periodicals 
and  reviews  issued  under  Princeton's  grad- 
uate and  undergraduate  direction  fully  sus- 
taining the  reputation  of  the  University  in 
this  field.  The  first  article  in  the  first  num- 
ber of  the  Nassau  Lit  was  written  fifty  years 
ago  by  the  Rev.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.  D., 
of  the  Class  of '41.  It  also  contained  an 
article  by  Charles  Godfrey  Leland  ('*Hans 
Breitmann  "),  of  the  Class  of  '45.  Youthful 
contributions  from  many  men  since  become 
famous  are  scattered  over  its  pages. 

The  twin  white-marble  buildings,  with 
monolithic  columns,  purely  Grecian,  known 
11 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

as  Whig  and  Clio  Halls,  are  among  the 
most  beautiful  on  the  Campus.  No  one 
not  a  member  can  pass  through  their  doors. 
One  of  the  traditions  is  that  a  Mrs.  Potter 
was  chased  by  a  bull,  and,  taking  refuge 
on  the  porch  of  Whig  Hall,  tried  the  door 
in  vain,  the  secret  catch  being  proof  against 
the  uninitiated ;  but  she  finally  succeeded  in 
pressing  through  behind  a  member.  Here 
was  a  dilemma,  indeed !  A  woman  had 
seen  the  sacred  antechamber !  There  was 
but  one  course  open:  she  was  duly  initi- 
ated and  put  under  pledge  of  secrecy,  and 
is  the  only  woman  who  has  seen  the  interior 
of  either  house. 

Whether  this  story  is  true  or  not,  there 
was  a  woman  in  1777  who  was  fully  initi- 
ated into  hotli  the  American  Whig  and  Cli- 
osophic  Societies,  which  then  met  in  the 
upper  story  of  the  stone  building  west  of 
North  College,  now  called  the  ^'University 
Offices."  At  this  time  it  was  considered 
prudent  to  protect  the  minutes  and  archives 

12 


/^/ 


//f 


i 


•I 


Alexander  Hall,  showing  North  Front. 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

of  tlie  two  societies  from  the  Britisli  troops, 
and  Mrs.  Rictiard  Stockton,  wife  of  tlie 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
a  lady  of  unusual  education,  great  intelli- 
gence, and  a  poetess  as  well,  was  appointed 
the  custodian  of  the  treasures  of  both  socie- 
ties, and  of  the  records  of  the  College  also. 
The  precious  deposit  was  safely  hidden  in 
the  ground  at  "  Morven  "  during  the  raid  of 
the  enemy's  forces  on  that  very  house,  and 
was  returned  after  the  British  army  was 
driven  from  the  State. 

The  politics  of  the  College  formerly  took 
their  shape  from  the  contests  in  the  Halls. 
The  writer  well  remembers  being  taken  by 
student  friends  at  night,  soon  after  matricu- 
lation, to  a  secret  conclave  in  **  Jugtown," 
where  in  a  small  room,  dense  with  tobacco- 
smoke,  a  ''caucus"  was  held  of  one  of  the 
''parties  "  in  Whig  Hall,  and  where  candi- 
dates for  society  honors  were  agreed  on, 
and  measures  adopted  for  a  heated  college 
campaign.    But  party  spirit  ran  so  high  in 

13 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

the  elections  for  "Junior  Orators"  tliat 
changes  were  made  by  which  the  candi- 
dates were,  and  still  are,  chosen  by  judges 
instead  of  by  popular  vote. 

While  the  Halls  as  now  conducted  fur- 
nish a  certain  measure  of  club  facilities,  the 
eating  clubs  of  Princeton  have  grown  in 
many  cases  into  social  centres  of  more  or 
less  luxury  and  comfort.  Princeton  has  no 
commons. 

Half  a  century  ago  there  was  a  refec- 
tory in  a  large  building  at  the  southeast 
corner  of  the  front  Campus,  which  has  long 
since  disappeared  before  the  march  of  mod- 
em architecture.  There  was  also  a  second 
refectory,  at  a  lower  charge  for  board,  in 
a  wooden  building  east  of  East  College. 
The  food  was  fair,  but  the  service  would  be 
criticised  by  a  fastidious  club  member. 
Boiled  eggs,  for  example,  were  served  in  a 
)arge  tin  milk-pan  ;  each  student  had  a  bowl 
and  soup-spoon,  and  the  eggs  were  broken, 

14 


Alexander  Hall  —  the  Colonnade. 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

in  considerable  nnmbers,  into  the  bowl. 
Milk  and  dipped  toast  were  also  served  in 
milk-pans.  The  bntter  was  occasionally 
ancient,  and  on  one  such  occasion  a  student 
threw  a  plate  of  butter  against  the  wall. 
When  the  tutor  asked  who  did  it,  one  of 
the  fellows  told  him  to  ask  the  butter,  as  it 
was  old  enough  to  speak  for  itself ! 

A  tutor  sat  at  the  head  of  each  table. 
The  tables  were  long  and  of  planed  pine, 
with  straight  legs  fastened  to  the  floor  by 
bent  iron  with  screws.  The  tutor  at  a  cer- 
tain table  was  very  bashful,  and  was  there- 
fore legitimate  "  game  "  for  the  boys.  The 
students  managed  to  draw  out  the  screws 
from  the  floor,  and  having  passed  the  word 
around,  at  a  given  signal  they  gently  raised 
the  table  with  their  knees  and  made  it 
move  a  little  toward  the  tutor  —  all  hands 
continuing  to  eat  and  talk  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  The  tutor  seemed  dazed  by  the 
mysterious  motion,  and  when  the  table  be- 
gan to  press  against  his  breast,  he  politely 

15 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

moved  his  cliair  l)ackward.  As  the  table 
progressed  lie  continued  to  back,  and  the 
students  were  satisfied  only  when  they  had 
pinned  him  to  the  wall. 

This  is  only  an  illustration  of  the  pranks 
of  the  collegians  when  they  used  to  eat  in 
common,  and  when  their  behavior  some- 
times became  riotous.  The  conduct  of  the 
students  at  their  meals  became  the  subject 
of  legislation  in  the  College. 

In  the  college  laws,  "Revised,  Amended, 
and  Adopted  by  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
September  30,  1813,"  it  was  enacted  that : 

''No  student  shall  leave  the  dining-table 
.  .  .  except  by  permission  from  one  of  the 
Officers  present";  and 

"  No  student  who  is  capable  of  attending 
on  the  exercises  of  the  College  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  board  out  of  the  house." 

An  eflbrt  was  made  within  recent  times  to 
revive  the  usage  of  commons,  and  two  hun- 
dred or  more  took  their  meals  together 
under  a  cooperative  arrangement  in  Univer- 

16 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

sity  Hall  for  two  years.  But  the  business, 
being  in  the  hands  of  novices,  was  misman- 
aged, and  resulted  in  failure.  Students 
nowadays,  in  groups  of  twelve  or  more,  or- 
ganize as  clubs  for  eating  purposes.  This 
custom  has  enabled  many  a  scholar  with  a 
slender  purse  to  earn  his  living  by  catering 
for  such  a  club  ;  and  it  is  a  noble  evidence 
of  the  equality  on  which  all  men  stand  at 
Princeton,  that  a  meritorious  student  of 
gentlemanlike  tastes  and  manly  disposition 
loses  no  caste  by  reason  of  such  occupation. 
Indeed,  it  has  happened  that  a  student  thus 
defraying  his  expenses  has  been  not  only 
popular  in  the  club,  but  was  elected  President 
of  his  class.  Out  of  such  combinations 
have  developed  the  more  attractive  clubs, 
with  their  own  houses,  libraries,  billiard- 
rooms,  parlors,  and  bedrooms.  The  Ivy 
Club  is  the  oldest  of  these  (1878),  and  the 
members  are  carefully  selected  from  the 
Senior  and  Junior  classes,  and  close  friend- 
ships are  cemented  through  the  companion- 

17 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

ship  tliTis  formed.  The  graduate  members 
come  back  and  hold  reunions  in  the  club- 
house from  year  to  year.  This  club  has  a 
new  and  picturesque  house  in  process  of 
construction.  Of  the  same  type,  but  more 
recently  formed,  are  the  University  Cottage 
Club  (1887),  the  Tiger  Inn  (1890),  the  Cap 
and  Gown  (1891),  the  Colonial  (1892),  the 
Princeton  Elm  (1895),  and  the  Cannon  (1895). 
The  bond  of  affection  which  ties  together, 
not  only  through  the  college  course,  but 
through  life,  the  members  of  these  and  other 
organizations  is  something  unique.  It  is  not 
to  be  found  outside  the  *' classic  shades." 
The  pride,  the  love,  the  jealousy,  the  esprit 
de  corpSj  the  ambition  that  a  loyal  univer- 
sity man  feels  when  Alma  Mater  is  con- 
cerned, partakes  of  the  devotion  evoked  by 
country,  by  mother,  by  sweetheart,  with 
something  indescribably  delicious  thrown  in 
which  is  peculiar  to  the  college  life.  There 
is  nothing  invidious  in  it.  One  may  believe 
his  own  college  the  dearest  and  best  with- 

18 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

out  disparaging  another's;  "but  if  there 
happens  to  be  a  substantial  basis  to  his 
affectionate  claim,  the  sentiment  is  none  the 
weaker. 

A  most  touching  illustration  of  the  love 
of  a  Princeton  man  for  his  university  and 
his  club  has  been  recently  furnished  in  the 
life  and  death  of  Dr.  George  K.  Edwards, 
of  Newcastle,  Delaware,  a  graduate  of  the 
Class  of  '89.  Edwards  was  the  popular 
man  of  his  day.  No  college  crowd  was  com- 
plete if  he  were  not  present.  He  had  a  spe- 
cies of  humor  altogether  original,  and  those 
who  knew  him  —  young  and  old  — will  never 
forget  his  mock  seriousness  when  called  on 
to  make  a  speech  at  some  reunion,  or  how 
he  would  point  his  finger  at  some  imaginary 
victims  of  his  oratory,  and  with  frowning 
brow  and  piercing  eye  utter  the  words: 
"And,  sirs!"  Edwards  was  an  intensely 
loyal  Princetonian  and  Ivy  Club  man.  He 
repeatedly  travelled  three  thousand  miles  to 
attend  the  annual  Ivy  Alumni  dinner.  After 

19 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

one  of  these  festivals,  he  put  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars  into  the  treasury  of  the 
Club.  He  was  a  consumptive,  and  was  com- 
pelled to  seek  the  more  equable  climate  of 
the  far  West  as  a  residence  in  later  years. 
But  ill  health  did  not  prevent  ''Horse" 
Edwards,  as  his  intimates  called  him,  from 
traversing  the  continent  for  a  rally  of  the 
boys  at  Old  Nassau.  On  Friday  night  be- 
fore Commencement  of  1897,  the  Ivy  Club 
held  its  annual  dinner,  and  it  was  whispered 
about  that  "  Horse  "  was  sitting  on  the  club- 
house piazza,  although  so  ill  that  his  days 
might  be  said  literally  to  be  numbered.  In 
fact,  it  was  believed  that  he  had  come  to 
Princeton  to  die  in  the  midst  of  the  scenes 
he  loved  so  well.  When  the  after-dinner 
speaking  began,  "Horse"  came  to  the 
table,  and  laughed  and  cried  as  his  old 
friends  toasted  him  to  the  echo  and  sang  to 
him  in  the  old  familiar  strain : 

Here  's  to  you,  Horse  Edwards ! 
Here  's  to  you,  my  jovial  friend! 

20 


Library  of  Tiger  Inn. 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Called  to  his  feet,  lie  spoke  in  the  same  vein 
of  serio-comic  originality  which  had  so  often 
entertained  student  and  graduate  audiences ; 
but  there  was  a  veil  of  sadness  over  it  all, 
and  pathos  in  the  thought  that  the  Prince- 
ton enthusiast  was  obviously  doing  his  act 
of  comradeship  for  the  last  time.  The  next 
day  he  was  carried  to  the  '  Yarsity  Field  to 
see  the  base-ball  game  between  Princeton 
and  Yale,  and  his  weak  voice  was  heard 
once  more  when  the  cheers  went  up.  One 
by  one  he  went  through  the  functions  which 
returning  graduates  love  to  repeat  from  year 
to  year  at  Commencement.  But  on  Sunday 
his  fading  forces  made  it  imperative  that  he 
should  keep  his  bed,  and  it  was  plain  that 
he  was  dying.  He  asked  to  be  taken  to  his 
old  room  in  East  College,  and  there,  sur- 
rounded by  his  classmates,  and  happy  in 
the  thought  that  his  soul  was  to  take  its 
flight  from  the  very  Campus  of  Princeton, 
he  passed  serenely  away.  After  his  death 
it  was  found  that  he  had  left  legacies  to  the 

21 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

University  and   the  Ivy  Clulb   amounting 
to  sixty  thousand  dollars. 

Such  is  the  feeling  with  which  Princeton 
men  cling  to  Old  Nassau.  Two  other 
American  universities  are  older ;  several 
have  more  students ;  a  few  are  richer  in  dol- 
lars and  cents;  but  in  the  unpurchasable 
heritage  of  glorious  tradition,  in  the  roll  of 
honor  and  the  catalogue  of  achievement,  in 
that  spontaneous  confirmation  by  her  sons 
of  a  career  of  noble  work  w^hich  expresses 
itself  in  what  is  called  "Princeton  spirit," 
no  man  who  has  lived  within  her  beloved 
walls  or  walked  beneath  her  historic  shades 
will  yield  her  supremacy. 

It  is  around  ''Old  North"  particularly 
that  cluster  the  memories  of  the  Revolution. 
Washington,  having  crossed  the  Delaware 
in  1777  and  precipitated  the  battle  of  Prince- 
ton, there  administered  the  most  telling 
blow  of  the  war  to  the  British,  and  turned 
the  tide  of  the  conflict.    It  was  within  a  mile 

22 


-r;  C    U 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

of  the  College  that  Mercer  fell,  and  it  has 
long  been  a  custom  for  Freshmen  to  make 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  house  where  he  died. 
After  the  battle  the  enemy  retreated  and  oc- 
cupied Old  North.  The  first  shot  is  said  by 
tradition  to  have  entered  the  prayer  hall 
and  passed  through  the  head  of  the  portrait 
of  King  Greorge  the  Second,  on  the  wall. 
But  a  Frenchman  writing  of  Princeton  de- 
nies this  story,  and  alleges  that  the  portrait 
was  cut  out  of  the  frame  by  the  British  and 
taken  away  to  keep  it  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  patriots.  This  he  claims  to  have  had 
from  the  lips  of  some  who  were  present,  so 
that  this  painting  may  still  be  in  existence. 
Who  will  discover  it  and  present  it  to  the 
University  ?  The  British  w^ere  afterward  ex- 
pelled from  Old  North,  which  was  occupied 
by  the  Americans,  but  not  until  the  build- 
ing had  been  damaged,  a  portrait  of  Gover- 
nor Belcher  taken  away,  and  the  books  of 
the  library  rifled.  Some  of  these  were  after- 
ward found  in  North  Carolina. 

23 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

In  1783  tTie  National  Congress,   driven 
from  PMadelpliia  by  the  threats  of  Penn- 
sylvania soldiers,  took  refuge  in  Princeton, 
and  held  its  sessions  in  the  library-room  of 
Nassau  Hall.    It  was  here,  on  July  4  of 
the  same  year,  that  a  memorable  jubilee 
was  celebrated.    Then,  for  the  first  time. 
Whig    and    Clio    Halls  were    represented 
publicly    by  speakers,    the  Whig    orator 
being  Ashbel  Green,  of  the  Senior  Class, 
afterward  President  of  the  College.    James 
Madison,    a    graduate    of   eleven    years' 
standing,  then  a  Congressman,  Dr.  With- 
erspoon,    and    the    Congress   itself,    were 
present  in  the  audience.     In  the  fall  of 
the  same  year  Ashbel   Green,   the  Vale- 
dictorian, included  in  his  speech  a  direct 
complimentary  address  to  General  Wash- 
ington, who  next  day  made  a  present  of 
fifty  guineas  to  the  Trustees  of  the  College, 
which  they  used  in  procuring  a  full-length 
portrait  of  Washington  by  the  elder  Peale 
of  Philadelphia.    This  picture  now  occu- 

24 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

pies,  it  is  affirmed,  tlie  very  frame  wMcli 
had  contained  the  portrait  of  George  the 
Second. 

Old  North  was  burned,  intentionally,  it 
was  thought,  in  1802,  and  the  library  de- 
stroyed, this  being  the  second  loss  of  the 
kind.  A  third  fire  occurred  in  1855.  The 
identity  of  the  structure,  however,  has  never 
been  lost,  the  solid  masonry  remaining 
proof   against   the    flames. 

General  Lafayette  visited  Princeton  in 
1829,  and  it  was  probably  in  Old  North 
that  Eichard  Stockton,  known  as  the 
''Duke,"  and  son  of  the  signer,  welcomed 
him  as  "Marquis."  On  being  reminded 
that  Lafayette  had  renounced  his  title, 
Stockton  said  :  "Once  a  marquis,  always  a 
marquis.  I  shall  address  him  by  his  title 
before  the  infamous  Revolution."  And  he 
did  so  address  him. 

In  the  demoralized  state  of  aflairs  during 
and  after  the  Revolution  it  was  not  such  an 
easy  thing  for  a  boy  to  get  to  college.     Ste- 

25 


PRINCETON —  OLD  AND  NEW 

phanus  Van  Rensselaer,  Patroon  of  Rensse- 
laerswyck  (afterward  Major-General  and 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  State  of  New 
York),  was  sent  in  the  fall  of  1779,  at  the 
age  of  fifteen,  to  Princeton  College.  Many 
others  of  his  name  and  family  have  iDeen 
graduated  there  since.  But  Stephanus  had 
to  be  escorted,  with  his  schoolmates,  by  a 
military  guard.  Princeton  was  reached,  but 
education  in  those  days  was  there  secured 
almost  within  range  of  the  enemy's  guns 
and  the  roar  of  their  artillery.  Such  was 
the  excitement,  if  not  the  danger,  that  the 
young  Patroon  was  at  last  removed  to  Cam- 
bridge, and  was  graduated  with  honor  at 
Harvard  in  1782.  Some  cynical  Princeto- 
nian  has  said  that  nothing  less  than  two 
armies  and  a  revolution  could  drive  a  son 
of  Old  Nassau  to  a  New  England  col- 
lege. Stephanus  did  not  know,  however, 
how  much  security  a  Princeton  diploma 
carried  with  it.  Stephen  Bloomer  Balch,  a 
graduate  of  the  College,  stopped  one  night 

26 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

at  a  North  Carolina  farm-liouse,  in  the 
most  exciting  period  of  the  war,  and  sought 
shelter.  The  wife  of  the  farmer,  who  him- 
self was  absent,  admitted  him  after  much 
persuasion.  In  the  small  hours  of  the 
morning  the  farmer  returned  and  roughly 
ordered  Batch  to  vacate,  exclaiming :  *'  I 
allow  no  man  to  sleep  under  my  roof  but  a 
Whig!"  *'Then  let  me  rest  in  peace," 
said  Batch,  ^'  for  I  was  graduated  at  Prince- 
ton under  Dr.  Witherspoon,  a  signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence."  The  pass- 
port was  vised,  and  Balch  had  his  night's 
repose. 

Many  a  college  usage  which  has  con- 
tributed its  mite  to  make  up  the  full  con- 
ception of  Princeton  life  to  the  men  of  its 
time  has  come  and  gone.  The  class  ''  rush  " 
was  once  a  dangerous  but  exhilarating  af- 
fair, in  which  masses  of  men  were  impelled 
against  each  other  in  solid  phalanx,  the 
forward  ranks  being  actually  lifted  into  the 

27 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

air  by  the  shock.  The  base  of  the  old  Tri- 
angle was  the  scene  of  many  dramatic  en- 
counters. This  pastime  was  forbidden  by 
the  Faculty,  but  flourished  in  proportion  to 
the  strength  of  the  prohibition.  Not  many 
years  ago  it  was  thought  that  it  had  died  of 
its  own  accord.  But  the  annually  increas- 
ing size  of  the  Freshman  Class  has  imbued 
that  body  with  a  sense  of  its  own  power, 
and  for  a  year  or  two  past  the  tables  have 
been  turned  rather  ludicrously  on  the  once 
invincible  Sophomores  by  the  ''infant 
class,"  who  have  "rushed"  their  tradi- 
tional enemy  to  their  hearts'  content. 

The  "cane  spree"  still  exists,  but  in  a 
modified  form.  It  has  gone  through  a 
number  of  curious  modifications.  Twenty- 
five  years  ago  it  was  similar  in  many  fea- 
tures to  the  rush.  The  Freshman  Class 
appeared  at  night  in  front  of  the  post-office 
on  Nassau  Street,  each  man  carrying  a 
cane.  The  Sophomores  rushed  the  Fresh- 
men, each  man  grabbing  a  cane  and  tus- 

28 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

sling  for  it  to  the  best  of  his  albility.  By 
1875  it  was  a  more  formal  affair.  For  a 
week  or  two  before  the  eventful  night  each 
Freshman  would  choose,  or  be  assigned,  a 
Junior  as  a  ^'second,"  or  backer.  Each 
Sophomore  had  a  Senior  who  served  him 
in  a  similar  capacity.  These  seconds  would 
''  arrange"  matches  between  men  who  were 
believed  to  be  of  probable  equal  strength 
and  ability.  For  days  the  Junior  would 
coach  his  Freshman  on  famous  tricks,  such 
as  the  ''hip  throw."  He  was  taught  how 
to  rosin  his  hands;  how  to  hold  them  at 
just  the  pro]3er  distance  from  the  ends,  so 
as  to  retain  the  outside  hold;  how  to  get 
the  cane  under  his  body  when  the  Sopho- 
more threw  him  ;  or  how  to  keep  his  oppo- 
nent from  jumping  on  the  cane  with  both 
knees.  On  the  first  fine  moonlight  night 
in  September  or  early  October  the  whole 
College  gathered  to  see  the  series  of  duels, 
eacb  conducted  in  its  own  little  circle  of 
cbeering  men,  the  whole  occupying  three 

29 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

or  four  hours.  It  was  the  most  pictur- 
esque of  college  customs.  It  was  held  on 
the  space  l)ack  of  East  College.  Every 
window  on  the  east  side  was  illuminated. 
When  a  cane  was  ''won,"  that  is,  wrenched 
free,  the  winner  would  hold  it  aloft  amid 
mighty  cheers  from  his  classmates,  and  the 
little  circle  would  in  an  instant  dissolve, 
to  gather  around  other  contestants.  Next 
day  a  count  was  made  by  each  class  of 
the  number  of  canes  won,  lost,  and  di- 
vided, and  this  determined  the  issue  of  the 
contest  for  that  year.  The  theory  was  that 
if  the  Freshman  Class  won  the  most  canes 
it  might  carry  them  from  that  date.  But 
the  victoiy  was  generally  a  barren  one,  as 
few  Freshmen  ever  had  the  audacity  to 
carry  a  cane  before  the  issue  of  the  Sopho- 
more proclamation. 

Later  the  custom  was  narrowed  down  to 
three  contests,  heavy,  middle,  and  light 
weight,  each  class  choosing  its  champions, 
and  was  held  back  of  Reunion  or  in  front 

30 


Cane  Spree  as  it  was  in  1876,  back  of  East  College. 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

of  Witlierspoon.  Then  (by  aid  and  advice 
of  the  Faculty)  it  was  reduced  to  an  episode 
in  the  fall  games.  In  1896  the  old  custom 
of  having  three  cane  sprees  held  at  night 
was  permitted  to  be  revived,  as  a  mark  of 
favor  from  the  Faculty  to  the  College  in  con- 
sideration of  the  greatly  improved  order 
maintained  by  the  students. 

A  marked  advance  has  been  made  by  the 
students  themselves,  at  Princeton,  during 
the  past  few  years,  in  the  matter  of  dignity 
and  the  ethics  of  college  life.  Spontaneously, 
and  without  influence  from  Faculty  or 
Alumni,  —  an  influence  which  generally 
seems  to  work  inversely  to  the  direction 
intended, — they  introduced  and  have  main- 
tained what  is  now  known  throughout  the 
college  world  as  the  ''honor  system,"  un- 
der which  a  student  caught  by  his  fellows 
cheating  at  examinations  loses  his  social 
status,  is  disgraced,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
has  to  retire  from  the  University.  It  needed 
only  that  one  or  two  should  be  thus  ostra- 

31 


PRINCETON— OLD  AND  NEW 

cized  to  discover  that  the  mass  of  honoralble 
students  could  successfully  maintain  a  sys- 
tem of  absolute  fairness.  So  true  is  this, 
that  professors  sometimes  leave  their  exam- 
ination-room, and  the  old-time  surveillance 
is  a  dead  letter.  The  spirit  of  manliness  has 
still  further  permeated  the  student  life,  and 
brutal  hazing  has  also  disappeared  during 
recent  years,  it  is  hoped  never  to  return. 

It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that  some  of 
the  impositions  on  Freshmen  used  to  be  very 
funny,  and  there  are  mild  forms  of ''guy- 
ing" still  in  vogue  which  provoke  a  smile 
even  from  the  most  sedate.  When  a  young 
"Verdant  Green,"  for  example,  makes  his 
first  appearance,  walking  with  his  papa 
across  the  Campus,  "disconcerting"  is  not 
a  word  strong  enough  to  express  his  feeling 
as  he  hears  a  crowd  of  Sophomores  keep 
time  to  his  step  by  saying,  ''Right!  left! 
right!  left!"  It  was  a  son  of  ex-Mayor 
Hewitt,  of  New  York,  who,  being  visited  in 
his  room  by  a  party  of  fellows  demand- 

32 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

ing  that  lie  should  sing,  said  lie  would 
be  willing  to  play  on  the  horn.  This  offer 
being  accepted,  he  seized  a  big  tin  horn 
from  a  shelf  and,  throwing  up  the  window, 
blew  a  blast  which  brought  the  Proctor  al- 
most before  the  Sophomores  could  beat  a 
hasty  retreat.  ''Smoking  out"  was  the 
favorite  mode  of  torturing  Freshmen  thirty 
or  forty  years  ago,  and  a  mysterious  order 
known  as  ''Hogi  Mogi"  was  held  in  abject 
dread  by  unsophisticated  matriculates.  The 
name  was  almost  all  there  was  of  it,  but  under 
this  aegis  many  a  deed  of  cruelty  was  done  by 
masked  Sophomores.  The  popular  signifi- 
cance of  the  term  ''sophomore,"  by  the  way, 
is  likely  to  be  utterly  lost,  if  the  boys  of  our 
colleges  continue  to  transform  themselves 
into  university  men. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  plenty  of  grave 
and  reverend  seigniors,  ministers,  judges, 
and  scientists,  who  look  back  with  plea- 
sure to  the  time  when  they  "occupied" 
the  entries  of  Old  North,  and  behind  bar- 

33 


PEINCETON~.OLD  AND  NEW 

ricades  of  fire-wood  rolled  hot  cannon-balls 
up  and  down  the  brick-tiled  corridors, 
and  made  night  hideous  by  continuous 
ringing  of  the  college  bell.  This  was  a 
common  thing  fifty  years  ago.  The  long 
brick  halls  of  Old  North  made  a  fine  place 
to  roll  cannon-balls  at  night.  This  would 
bring  out  the  tutor  who  lived  in  the  build- 
ing, who  would  try  to  capture  the  ball  and 
stop  the  noise.  At  one  time  the  ball  was 
heated,  and  the  tutor  discovered  this  to  his 
cost.  On  the  next  occasion  the  ball  was 
rolled  down  cold,  whereupon  the  tutor 
rushed  out  with  a  pail  of  water  and  del- 
uged the  ball,  only  to  be  discomfited  by 
the  derisive  cry  of  ''Fire!"  from  the  stu- 
dents in  ambush. 

The  stealing  of  the  bell-clapper  by  the 
Freshman  Class  was  a  later  institution. 
The  class  who  failed  to  achieve  this  feat  was 
formerly  considered  beneath  contempt.  In 
1886  four  Freshmen  with  skeleton  keys,  de- 
fying the  laws  both  of  the  State  and  the  insti- 

34 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

tution,  climbed  to  the  tower  between  two  and 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning.  What  was 
their  astonishment  to  find  a  light  burning 
when  they  reached  the  top,  and  a  night- 
watchman  peacefully  slumbering  under  the 
coveted  clapper !  They  beat  a  hasty  retreat, 
but,  undaunted,  they  succeeded  a  few  nights 
later.  The  stolen  property,  according  to 
usage,  was  melted  into  miniature  clappers, 
and  worn  as  trophies  by  the  class. 

It  was  in  Old  North  that  Professor  J. 
Addison  Alexander,  the  linguist,  saw  on 
the  floor,  just  as  he  was  about  entering  his 
room,  a  bomb  with  a  smoking  fuse.  With- 
out stopping  to  think  of  the  danger,  he 
jumped  on  it  and  succeeded  in  stamping 
out  the  fire.  Taking  the  ugly  thing  into 
his  room,  he  proceeded  to  cut  it  open,  only 
to  find  it  filled  with  innocent  sawdust ;  and 
as  he  smiled  to  think  how  he  had  been 
''sold,"  a  jeering  cry  was  heard  outside  the 
door  from  the  throats  of  twenty  Sophomores. 

The  forced  respect  to  professors  exacted 

35 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

in  colonial  days  had  long  before  yielded  to 
that  familiarity,  horn  of  independence,  which 
has  done  much  in  our  free  country  to  foster 
irreverence  to  superiors.  It  was  enacted  in 
the  early  college  laws  that  ^' every  scholar 
shall  rise  up  and  make  obeisance  when  the 
President  goes  in  or  out  of  the  hall,  or  enters 
the  pulpit  on  days  of  religious  worship. 
Every  Freshman  sent  of  an  errand  shall  go 
and  do  it  faithfully  and  make  quick  return. 
Every  scholar  in  college  shall  keep  his  hat 
off  about  ten  yards  to  the  President,  and 
^ve  to  the  tutors."  In  the  days  of  Presi- 
dent Maclean,  affectionately  known  among 
the  students  as  "  Johnnie,"  a  considerable 
part  of  the  enjoyment  of  breaking  the  col- 
lege laws  consisted  in  getting  and  keeping 
the  old  gentleman  out  and  leading  him  a 
dance.  For  he  was  a  figure  in  his  day.  The 
slightest  noise  or  indication  of  a  rumpus 
would  bring  '*01d  Johnnie"  to  the  Campus, 
night  or  day.  After  dark  he  carried  a  lan- 
tern, and  at  all  times  appeared  in  immense 

36 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

india-rubber  shoes,  an  old-fasMoned  cloak, 
and  a  beaver  hat  which  might  be  described 
as  archaic.  His  principal  office  when  not 
teaching  was  that  of  police  superintendent 
of  the  College.  There  were  no  ''proctors" 
in  those  days,  but  Dennis,  the  college 
servant,  assisted  ''Johnnie,"  and  used  to 
summon  the  boys  to  appear  before  the  Fac- 
ulty after  "  Johnnie  "  had  caught  them. 

Dennis  is  still  there,  and  completed  in  1896 
a  half-century  of  faithful  service  to  the  Col- 
lege. Many  of  the  disturbances  were  made 
by  the  students  for  the  sole  purpose  of  en- 
ticing the  President  to  pursuit,  and  to  hear 
his  familiar  "Tut,  tut!"  when  he  secured 
a  supposed  offender.  The  furniture  in  his 
office  was  not  of  the  most  solid  kind.  When 
Henry  Clay  visited  Princeton  and  was  asked 
by  "Johnnie"  to  sit  down  in  his  study,  he 
did  so,  and  the  rickety  chair  gave  way.  The 
statesman  got  up  and  said:  "Dr.  Maclean, 
I  hope  the  other  chairs  of  the  institution  are 
on  a  more  permanent  foundation."     One 

37 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

night,  when  two  Maltese  donkeys  from  Com- 
modore Stockton's  field  were  found  on  the 
fourth  floor  of  North  College,  the  students 
asked  Dr.  Maclean  how  he  thought  they  had 
got  there.  "  Through  their  great  anxiety," 
said  he,  "to  visit  some  of  their  brethren." 

The  Eev.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.  D.,  of  the 
Class  of  '41,  says  there  was  a  picture  of 
''Old  Johnnie"  up  in  the  old  College  for  a 
long  time,  representing  him  with  a  police- 
man's baton  over  his  shoulder.  Somehow 
or  other  that  old  man  entwined  himself 
around  the  affections  of  the  students.  For 
forty-six  years  he  was  connected  with  the 
college  as  professor  and  President.  Long 
after  his  retirement  the  mere  mention  of  his 
name  among  the  Alumni  would  bring  out 
a  rousing  cheer. 

Professor  Jaeger  (1832-43),  who  lectured 
on  German  Literature  and  Natural  History, 
was  a  simple-minded  man,  and  not  too  fa- 
miliar with  English  idioms.  A  student 
named  Parker  told  him  it  would  show 
38 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

knowledge  of  our  familiar  phrases  if  lie 
used  the  expression,  "You  have  the  wrong 
sow  by  the  ear,"  when  meaning  ''You  are 
mistaken."  Taking  tea  with  President 
Maclean  a  few  days  later,  ''  Johnnie's  "  sis- 
ter, Miss  Mary,  who  presided,  asked  him  to 
take  another  cup.  Professor  Jaeger  ad- 
dressed her  in  reply  as  "Miss  Agnes."  "7 
am  Miss  Mary,"  said  she;  "my  sister  oppo- 
site you  is  Miss  Agnes."  "Ah  ! "  said  the 
unfortunate  professor,  proud  to  show  his 
proficiency  in  English  idioms,  "I  perceive 
I  have  the  wrong  sow  hy  the  ear."  "Old 
Johnnie"  was  in  a  rage,  and  it  was  only 
through  his  invariable  kindness  of  heart 
that  the  perpetrator  of  the  jest  was  not 
punished. 

Morning  prayers  were  formerly  held  in 
the  chapel  near  the  break  of  day,  and  the 
students  had  to  attend  recitation  after  those 
exercises  and  before  breakfast.  Nowadays 
the  boys  have  the  luxury  of  coffee  and  rolls 
first,  and  go  to  chapel  afterward  at  a  ra- 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

tional  hour.  In  those  old  days  the 
"rouser"  was  sounded  —  the  great  coUege 
"bell  —  to  wake  the  sleepers,  and  the  col- 
lege servants  blew  a  long,  loud  blast  on  a 
horn  in  each  hallway.  New  students  from 
the  South  would  start  from  their  slumbers, 
thinking  the  hounds  were  out.  It  used  to 
be  the  custom  on  Sunday  for  the  clerical 
professors  to  take  turns  in  preaching  to  the 
boys,  and  as  the  gift  of  oratory  does  not  in- 
variably accompany  the  genius  of  scholar- 
ship, the  poor  fellows  were  often  treated  to 
dry  husks  instead  of  a  nourishing  spiritual 
meal.  Nevertheless,  some  of  the  greatest 
preachers  of  the  day  were  among  the  Faculty 
in  those  times.  The  order  now  is  to  have  a 
series  of  the  most  gifted  clergymen  of  the 
land  invited  to  liU  the  college  pulpit,  and 
notwithstanding  the  excellence  of  the  sup- 
ply, no  one  is  more  cordially  welcomed  as 
a  preacher  than  President  Patton,  whose 
scholarly  intellect  and  keen  but  dignified 
wit   are   tlioroughly  appreciated   by  that 

40 


^  1 , , -^(*^' 


L   :'5f^^ 


r-Ul 


Si^^l^ 


.-tit    » 


^ViL^«i   .iaibj     eB^>  ,p^ 


i*^fe 


PErSTETOX  — OLD  AXD  XEW 

most  discriminatiiig  audience,  the  student 
body. 

Tlie  mode  of  life  was  simpler  in  tliose 
davs  than  now,  hut  the  same  hnmor  which 
still  makes  collegiacs  so  comic  effeiTe-sced 
fifty  years  ago.  When,  for  example,  Wil- 
liam Pennington,  son  of  a  former  governor 
of  Xew  Jersey,  roomed  next  door  to  Senior 
Tutor  Topping,  it  was  the  cnstom  for  each 
man  to  hang  on  the  outside  knob  of  his 
door  the  bag  containing  his  soiled  clothes 
for  the  laundiy.  Pennington  stuffed  his 
own  shirts,  one  day,  in  Tutor  Topping  s  bag, 
and  waited  for  the  day  when  the  clean  linen 
was  returned  and  laid  out  on  Topping's 
bed.  Then,  knowing  that  t^o  of  the 
younger  tutors  were  in  Topping's  room, 
Pennington  knocked  at  his  door.  On  en- 
tering he  put  on  an  embarrassed  air,  as  if 
hesitating  to  speak  in  the  presence  of  the 
other  tutors.  Topping  in  a  lofty  way  said  : 
''These  gentlemen  are  my  fiiends :  I  have 
no  secrets  from  them  ;  say  what  you  wish." 
41 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Pennington  still  hemmed  and  hawed,  but, 
again  urged  to  speak,  blurted  out:  "It  is 
not  my  fault,  Mr.  Topping ;  I  did  not  want 
to  say  anything  about  it  now ;  but  as  you 
insist,  I  must  ask  you  please  to  return  the 
shirts  I  lent  you,  as  I  am  in  need  of  them." 
Topping's  rage  and  horror  at  being  thus 
addressed  before  the  younger  tutors,  who 
looked  up  to  him  as  a  "Magnus  Apollo," 
may  be  imagined.  He  began  to  upbraid 
Pennington,  who  interrupted  him  by  say- 
ing: "It  is  of  no  use,  Mr.  Topping,  trying 
to  deny  the  fact.  I  see  the  shirts  there  on 
the  bed  with  your  own  things ! "  The  tu- 
tors stood  aghast,  but  Pennington  stepped 
to  the  bed  and  picked  out  his  own  shirts 
marked  with  his  name. 

That  student  genius  for  the  comic  was 
shown  in  a  novel  way  a  few  years  ago  at 
Princeton,  when  a  certain  class  by  concerted 
arrangement  brought  into  a  professor's  lec- 
ture-room fifty  smaU  alarm-clocks,  so  set 
that  one  should  go  off  every  minute  during 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

the  exercise.  It  requires  no  description  to 
picture  tlie  result. 

Students  are  quick  to  learn  the  peculiar 
characteristics  of  their  professors.  Stephen 
Alexander,  the  eminent  astronomer,  always 
lectured  to  the  Senior  Class  without  ever 
looking  at  his  audience.  The  old  boys 
will  remember  how  he  invariably  addressed 
his  remarks  to  the  stove.  He  had  a  set  of 
stock  stories  which  he  year  after  year  in- 
troduced at  certain  fixed  points  in  his  lec- 
tures, and  those  who  had  the  notes  of 
previous  classes  could  tell  by  the  particular 
story  what  part  of  the  subject  had  been 
reached. 

The  boys  who  steal  off  to  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  by  train  and  come  back  in 
the  "owl"  would  hesitate  to  take  the 
hazard  which  their  forefathers  had  to  risk 
seventy-five  years  ago  when  they  went  to 
Philadelphia  by  stage,  requiring  an  absence 
of  two  or  three  days,  during  which  their 
classmates  would  keep  candles  burning  in 

43 


PRmCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

their  rooms  and  answer  for  their  names  at 
roll-call.  In  those  days  it  would  seem  that 
the  student  body  was  less  submissive  to 
authority  than  now,  in  spite  of  more  rigor- 
ous rules.  During  the  latter  part  of  Presi- 
dent Green's  administration,  in  1816,  the 
students  became  riotous  and  took  posses- 
sion of  the  College.  The  recitation-rooms 
were  barred,  lectures  and  other  exercises 
were  necessarily  abandoned,  and  the  insti- 
tution was  practically  in  a  state  of  siege  — 
all  on  account  of  some  dissatisfaction  with 
the  management  of  the  College. 

One  of  the  customs  of  late  years  has  been 
for  the  Sophs  and  Freshmen,  respectively,  to 
placard  the  town  with  ''Proclamations,"  or 
''Procs,"  as  the  boys  call  them,  containing 
taunting  language  against  the  other  class, 
and  inciting  them  to  encounter.  Shortly 
after  the  opening  of  the  College  these  huge 
posters  have  been  seen  as  far  away  from 
the  town  as  five  miles.  The  challenged 
class  must  tear  them  down,  and  rows  and 

44 


i"^  I  ■if 


Brown  Hall,  froin  the  Archway  of  Doci. 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

"rushes "  are  the  result.  The  work  is  done 
secretly,  for  the  college  authorities  do  not 
deal  gently  with  the  offenders.  Such  mis- 
chievous pranks  are  as  nothing  compared 
with  the  ancient  dissipations  which  centred 
around  the  village  taverns. 

On  the  walls  of  Old  North  graduating 
classes  have  annually  planted  the  ivy,  in 
each  case  piling  up  reminiscence  on  remi- 
niscence, for  every  plant  that  clings  to  Old 
Nassau  is  the  child  of  one  that  clings  to 
some  other  historic  house.  Among  them  is 
one  from  Abbotsford,  the  home  of  Sir  Wal- 
ter Scott,  and  another  from  the  picturesque 
castle  at  Heidelberg. 

The  singing  of  the  Senior  Class  in  the 
early  summer  evenings,  on  the  steps  of 
Old  Nassau,  began  about  1865.  No  fea- 
ture of  university  life  in  any  college  can 
surpass  this  Princeton  custom  in  fascinat- 
ing interest.  The  culminating  occasion  is 
the  night  of  "Class  Day,"  in  these  latter 
times.     Several  thousand  people  —  the  stu- 

45 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

dents  and  their  friends  —  sit  and  lonnge  on 
the  grass  under  the  elms,  and  listen  to  the 
Seniors  as  thej  sing  their  old  songs  together 
for  the  last  time.  Graduates,  coming  back 
after  even  fifty  years  of  real  life,  uncon- 
sciously lapse  into  a  dream  of  former  fel- 
lowship under  the  influence  of  the  scene. 

A  favorite  mode  of  celebrating  the  Fourth 
of  July  in  the  olden  time  was  throwing  fire- 
balls composed  of  cotton-yarn  tightly 
wrapped  and  soaked  in  turpentine.  Buck- 
ets were  placed  around  the  cannon,  and  the 
balls  were  lighted  and  thrown  aloft  by 
hands  incased  in  strong  gloves,  and  again 
caught  up  and  thrown  again.  The  whole 
Quadrangle  would  be  alive  with  flaming 
comets  with  tails  of  fire. 

The  breaking  of  street-lamps  and  stealing 
of  shop-signs  have  been  students'  delights 
from  time  immemorial.  One  morning  a  sign 
appeared  over  President  Maclean's  study 
door  bearing  the  announcement,  "Oysters 
in  Every  Style." 

46 


C 

o 

5 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

The  Eev.  Theodore  L.  Cujler,  D.  D.,  tells 
of  a  two-horse  wagon  that  was  carried  to  the 
upper  story  of  Old  North  in  his  day, 
and  riotously  dragged  up  and  down  the 
entry  with  shouts  and  violence.  How  it  got 
there  is  a  puzzle ;  but  collegians  triumph 
over  the  laws  of  mechanics  as  thoroughly 
as  over  the  laws  of  the  institution  when  they 
determine  on  a  thing,  which  makes  one 
marvel  less  at  the  achievements  of  the 
Egyptians.  Hom-hlowing  was  one  of  the 
choice  amusements  twenty -five  years  ago, 
and  the  "horn  spree"  became  a  notable 
college  event.  Its  principal  charm  lay,  of 
course,  in  the  fact  that  it  was  prohibited  by 
the  Faculty.  It  consisted  in  the  blowing  on 
horrible  tin  horns  by  every  man  in  col- 
lege. At  a  certain  signal  every  window  was 
thrown  open,  and  pandemonium  seemed 
to  reign.  At  niglit  the  students  gathered 
in  a  body  and  moved  in  procession  about 
the  town,  blowing  on  these  horns,  and  many 
were  the  narrow  escapes  from  arrest  and 

47 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

detection  Iby  "Johnnie"  or  Professor  Giger 
or  some  other  amateur  policeman. 

''Commencement"  seems  an  odd  term, 
nsed,  as  it  is,  for  the  ceremonies  at  the  close 
of  a  college  course.  But  at  Princeton  the 
"Commencement"  exercises  used  to  be  in 
the  latter  part  of  September.  It  was  a  pub- 
lic holiday  and  gala  occasion  not  only  for 
the  College  but  for  all  the  country  around. 
Lines  of  booths  and  wagons  where  refresh- 
ments were  sold  made  their  appearance  at 
that  time,  and  the  town  took  on  the  aspect  of 
a  fair.  The  "  Old  Road"  was  a  racecourse  ; 
there  were  playing  for  pennies,  and  dancing 
and  fiddling,  and  even  bull-baiting.  The  time 
was  changed  about  1844,  and  Commence- 
ment has  been  in  June  or  July  ever  since. 

It  would  probably  puzzle  an  outsider  to 
tell  what  a  "Nassau  Rake"  is.  But  there 
are  hundreds  of  graduates  who  remember 
those  prohibited  publications  —  some  with 
regret  for  having  had  a  hand  in  them,  and 
more  with  memories  of  the  fun  and  risks 

48 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

attached  to  them.  It  was  the  custom  some 
years  ago  for  a  mischievous  group  of  the 
Sophomore  Class  each  year  to  print  a  pam- 
phlet of  lampoons  upon  the  Freshmen  and 
Juniors.  The  language  used  was  not  always 
choice.  There  was  not  much  delicacy  of 
touch.  Every  foible  received  a  notice  — 
sometimes  more  biting  than  parliamentary. 
There  was  humor  often  and  grossness  too  of- 
ten. Suspension  from  college  was  the  pen- 
alty for  complicity  in  the  offence  of  produc- 
ing the  ''  Rake  " ;  but  this  only  gave  a  spice 
to  the  undertaking.  The  very  nature  of  the 
publication  precludes  the  making  of  ex- 
tracts. But  men  who  have  become  great 
have  figured  in  those  columns  in  ridiculous 
attitudes.  One  ' '  Rake"  was  entitled  ' '  Typi- 
cal Forms  of  '71,  by  the  Class  of  '72,"  after 
a  celebrated  work  by  President  McCosh. 
On  the  corner  is  the  inscription,  "  Published 
by  the  Dublin  Tract  Society." 

The  "  Rake  "  issued  by  the  Class  of  '70  is 
entitled  "Essays  and  Reviews  on  Subjects 


PRINCETOlNr— OLD  AND  NEW 

Consequential  and  Insignificant"  ;  that  of 
the  Class  of  '69,  ''The  Nassau  Exposition"  ; 
that  of '68,  ''The  Differential  Calculus  of 
'68,"  and  is  divided  into  three  parts  — 
"Fundamental  Principles,"  "Examples  for 
Practice,"  and  "  Miscellaneous  Examples." 
Most  of  these  pamphlets  were  published 
with  the  simple  title,  "Nassau  Rake."  The 
"Rakes"  provoked  counter-publications 
by  the  Freshman  Class  under  the  name 
"Memorabilia  Sophomorum."  The  edi- 
torial of  the  "Rake"  of  1857  says:  "We 
have  authority  for  supposing  that  even  the 
Faculty  do  not  cooperate  as  heartily  with 
our  undertaking  as  they  could  and  should." 
So  little  did  they  cooperate  that  many  a 
graduate  to-day  can  look  back  on  a  forced 
"rustication"  in  consequence  of  his  discov- 
ered participation.  On  the  reverse  of  the 
title-page  of  the  "  Rake  "  of  1858  is  printed, 
"Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress, 
etc.,  etc.,  by  the  Rev.  Johannes  Maclean, 
the  President  of  the  College,  D.  D.,  M.  D., 

50 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

LL.  D.,  A.  S.  S.,   and  published  for  the 
Benefit  of  the  Faculty." 

The  ''Acaleph"  was  a  similar  puhlica- 
tion  by  the  Junior  Class.  There  is  nothing 
to  be  proud  of  in  these  anonymous  satires. 
But  every  college  has  had  its  mischief-mak- 
ers, and  their  pranks  form  a  part  of  the 
comprehensive  college  life.  Time  casts  a 
haze  over  what  is  foolish  or  blameworthy, 
and  takes  account  only  of  what  is  comic 
and  original.  The  form  of  satire  adopted 
by  the  students  has  differed  in  the  course 
of  years,  but  the  same  waggish  spirit  has 
always  burst  through  the  forced  dignity  of 
college  requirements.  John  Allen  Stuart, 
of  the  Class  of  '19,  for  example,  printed  a 
series  of  verses  called  the  "Honoriad," 
which  became  famous.  In  this  poem  vari- 
ous fellow-students  were  held  up  to  ridi- 
cule and  their  characteristic  traits  exposed. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  on  the  day  of  the 
promulgation  of  the  '^Honoriad"  Stuart 
and  Abram  W.  Venable  dined  at  old  Mrs. 

51 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Hodge's  (mother  of  tlie  celebrated  Br. 
Charles  Hodge),  and  when  they  came  out 
of  the  house  after  dinner  they  indulged  in  a 
fight  in  the  street,  caused  by  allusions  in 
the  verses  to  Venable,  as,  for  example  : 

That  tongue  to  speak  did  never  rise 
Except;,  hke  Argus^,  with  a  hundred  eyes ; 
But  mark  a  small  distinction,  by  the  by, 
Abe^s  eyes  are  egos,  and  not  omtli. 

The  references  were  in  some  cases  not  de- 
void of  compliment ;  as,  for  instance : 

That  forehead  seamed  by  care,  that  sunken  cheek, 
Those  premature  gray  hairs,  and  footsteps  weak. 
Say  that  the  man  thus  blighted  in  his  bloom 
Is  our  best  scholar,  honest  old  Jack  Groom. 
This  man  his  mind  could  narrow  to  a  line. 
Or  any  circle  all  his  thoughts  confine ; 
And  in  deep  meditation  folded  up. 
On  mathematics  breakfast,  dine,  and  sup. 
As  such  he  is,  of  him  no  more  I  ^11  sing. 
He  's,  so  respectable  in  everything  ; 
Who  attacks  him,  like  dog  that  gnaws  a  stone. 
Will  howl  in  pain  to  find  his  grinders  gone. 
52 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

The  author  of  the  ''Honoriad"  was  for 
many  years  editor  of  the  Charleston  (S.  C.) 
Mercury^  considered  one  of  the  best  news- 
papers of  the  South. 

In  contrast  with  the  trifling  side  of  college 
doings,  the  career  of  the  Philadelphian  So- 
ciety stands  out  conspicuously.  It  has 
been  for  nearly  seventy  years  the  religious 
organization  of  the  students,  corresponding 
with  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion elsewhere.  It  was  founded  by  Brai- 
nerd  Taylor.  Formerly  it  met  in  a  large 
room  belonging  to  a  student,  but  now  occu- 
pies the  beautiful  building  on  the  Campus 
known  as  Murray  Hall,  erected  with  a  be- 
quest by  Hamilton  Murray,  of  the  Class  of 
'72,  who  went  down  in  the  Yille  du  Hai^re, 
November  22,  1873.  The  influence  of  this 
vigorous  organization  on  the  Christian  life 
of  the  students  cannot  be  exaggerated. 

It  has  been  the  popular  prejudice  that 
Harvard  College  is  Unitarian  ;  Yale,  Con- 
gregational; and  Princeton,  Presbyterian. 

53 


PRINCETON^ OLD  AND  NEW 

One  is  as  true  as  the  others.  That  the  in- 
fluences of  these  ecclesiastical  bodies  are  felt 
more  or  less,  is  undeniable.  But  in  the 
case  of  Princeton,  at  least,  there  is  no  con- 
nection whatever  between  the  University 
and  the  church.  The  Theological  Semi- 
nary in  Princeton  is  an  entirely  distinct  in- 
stitution. Princeton  is  unsectarian,  but  dis- 
tinctly religious.  The  colonial  governor  who 
granted  its  charter  would  not  sign  it  until 
the  pledge  had  been  made  that  the  institu- 
tion was  to  be  decidedly  and  essentially 
free  ecclesiastically,  and  a  clause  forever 
stamping  this  principle  on  its  constitution 
was  ingrafted  in  the  royal  charter.  At 
the  annual  Commencement  of  1762,  an  ad- 
dress was  presented  to  Governor  Hardy  on 
behalf  of  the  Trustees  by  Richard  Stock- 
ton. In  that  address  occurs  the  following 
language : 

As  the  College  of  this  Province  has  been  fa- 
vored with  the  patronage  of  each  of  the  Gover- 
54 


H  I 

o  u 

2  3 

I  ^ 


o 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

nors  since  its  institution,  your  Excellency  will 
be  pleased  to  take  it  under  your  protection.  We 
can  assure  you  that  the  general  principle  for  pre- 
paring youth  for  public  service  in  Church  and 
State  and  making  them  useful  members  of  So- 
ciety, without  concerning  ourselves  about  their 
particular  religious  denomination,  is  our  grand 
idea. 


This  has  been  tlie  spirit  of  its  administra- 
tion ever  since,  and  is  to-day.  There  has 
always  been  a  large  proportion  of  students 
belonging  to  other  denominations  than  the 
Presbyterian,  and  they  have,  when  they 
chose,  maintained  their  respectively  appro- 
priate religious  organizations  and  attended 
their  own  church  services.  The  St.  Paul 
Society,  an  Episcopal  body,  has  its  place 
in  the  catalogue,  its  work,  its  meetings, 
and  its  public  celebrations. 

While  Princeton  is  unsectarian,  let  none 
of  its  friends  underrate  the  fact  that  its  ob- 
ject has  ever  been,  and  still  is,  to  cultivate 

55 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

not  only  learning  but  religion.  Tlie  Bible 
and  its  teachings  are  at  tlie  very  root  of  its 
influence,  and  it  is  one  of  the  glories  of  Old 
Nassau  that  it  has  educated  a  larger  pro- 
portion of  its  men  for  the  Christian  ministry 
than  any  other  American  institution  of  its 
class.  The  list  of  illustrious  divines  who 
have  received  their  learning  here,  among 
whom  are  some  of  the  brightest  ornaments 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Episcopal  bish- 
ops and  clergymen,  and  dignitaries  of  vari- 
ous other  denominations,  is  so  large  and  so 
familiar  that  specification  would  be  super- 
fluous ;  but  it  is  a  claim  that  Princeton 
makes  to  every  parent  that  the  boy  in- 
trusted to  its  care  will  be  brought  under 
distinctly  religious  influence  untainted  by 
narrow  denominationalism. 

In  developing  so  large  an  army  of  clergy- 
men, Princeton  has  not  neglected  the  do- 
main of  secular  pursuits.  During  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  she  has  furnished  the 
United  States  with  Presidents,  Vice-Presi- 

56 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

dents,  cabinet  officers,  foreign  ministers, 
senators,  members  of  Congress,  chief  jus- 
tices and  associate  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  cu'cuit  and  other  United  States 
judges,  judges  of  the  highest  State  courts, 
and  governors  of  States,  to  the  number  of 
upward  of  four  hundred ;  more,  in  fact,  in 
proportion  to  the  years  of  its  existence,  than 
any  other  university  in  the  land,  without 
making  any  allowance  for  the  comparative 
number  of  graduates. 

The  pages  of  Princeton's  history  have 
been  fairly  covered  with  names  of  the  great, 
and  a  catalogue  of  the  books  written  by  its 
learned  men  would  itself  be  a  volume. 

Jonathan  Edwards,  already  made  famous 
by  his  great  work  on  the  ''  Freedom  of  the 
Will,"  and  who,  according  to  Dr.  Holmes, 
'' stamped  his  iron  heel"  at  Princeton,  was 
one  of  the  first  three  presidents,  all  of  whom 
were  graduates  of  Yale,  a  college  which 
had  gone  into  operation  a  little  earlier  — 
although  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

forerunner  of  Princeton,  the  "  Log  College," 
was  establislied  on  the  old  Tennent  farm 
near  Hartsville,  Bucks  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  1726. 

The  mortal  remains  of  Colonel  Aaron 
Burr,  the  slayer  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
rest  in  Princeton  Cemetery,  which  has  loeen 
called  the  Westminster  of  America.  He  was 
there  interred,  at  his  own  request,  at  the 
feet  of  his  illustrious  father  and  grandfa- 
ther, Presidents  Aaron  Burr  and  Jonathan 
Edwards,  and  near  the  row  of  oblong  tombs 
where  sleep  the  great  departed  of  Princeton. 
A  plain  upright  slab  marks  the  spot,  and 
bears  the  simplest  inscription.  Many  a 
myth  has  gained  currency  about  Burr's 
grave.  It  is  not  true,  as  intimated  in  Mrs. 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe'  s  "  A  Minister' s  Woo- 
ing," that  the  stone  was  put  in  place  ''in 
the  night  by  some  friendly  unknown  hand," 
or  that  it  was,  as  hinted,  a  woman' s  hand. 
The  body  was  brought  publicly  to  Prince- 
ton in  September,  1836,  within  a  few  days 

58 


PRINCETON —  OLD  AND  NEW 

after  his  death,  and  was  buried  with  the 
utmost  publicity ;  and  the  ceremonies  were 
not  conducted  under  gloomy  and  mysteri- 
ous circumstances  at  dead  of  night  by  a  few 
men,  as  has  been  alleged.  The  services 
were  in  the  college  chapel,  the  discourse 
by  President  Carnahan.  The  Faculty  and 
students  were  present,  and  a  brass  band 
played  the  '' Portuguese  Hymn"  as  a  fu- 
neral dirge.  The  Cliosophic  Society,  of 
which  Burr  was  a  graduate  member,  wore 
the  usual  crape  badge  for  a  period  after- 
ward. Aaron  Burr  was  the  lowest  in  his 
class  at  Princeton  who  had  the  honor  of  a 
speech  at  Commencement. 

Witherspoon,  the  ''War  President," 
made  the  country  ring  in  his  time  with  his 
patriotism.  ''Tusculum,"  his  country-seat, 
about  a  mile  from  Princeton,  was  pillaged 
and  stripped  by  the  Hessians.  He  and 
Richard  Stockton,  a  Princeton  graduate, 
were  both  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence.     It    was    Witherspoon    who 

59 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

called  Princeton  the  Montpellier  of  America 
on  account  of  its  healthfulness. 

All  great  men  have  their  weaknesses. 
The  Marquis  de  Chartell,  a  member  of  the 
French  Academy  and  a  major-general  in 
the  French  army  under  the  Count  de 
Kochambeau,  visited  Princeton  in  1781. 
He  describes  a  conversation  with  President 
Witherspoon,  and  says :  "  In  accosting  me 
he  spoke  French,  but  I  easily  perceived 
that  he  had  acquired  his  knowledge  of  that 
language  from  reading  rather  than  conver- 
sation ;  which  did  not  prevent  me,  however, 
from  answering  him  and  continuing  to  con- 
verse with  him  in  French,  for  I  saw  that  he 
was  well  pleased  to  display  what  he  knew 
of  it.  This  is  an  attention  that  costs  little 
and  is  too  much  neglected  in  a  foreign 
country."  Then,  after  this  patronizing 
piece  of  pomposity,  the  Marquis  adds : 
''From  him  I  learned  that  this  coUege  is  a 
complete  university."  What  would  the 
Marquis,  or,  for  that  matter,  Witherspoon 

60 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

himself,  say  if  he  could  see  it  to-day  !  In 
Witherspoon' s  appeal  for  American  inde- 
pendence one  finds  that  tone  which  rings 
all  through  the  history  of  Princeton.  "  For 
my  own  part,"  he  said,  ''of  property  I 
have  some,  of  reputation  more.  That  repu- 
tation is  staked,  that  property  is  pledged, 
on  the  issue  of  this  contest;  and  although 
these  gray  hairs  must  soon  descend  into 
the  sepulchre,  I  would  infinitely  rather  that 
they  descended  thither  by  the  hand  of  the 
executioner  than  desert  at  this  crisis  the 
sacred  cause  of  my  country."  Let  Prince- 
ton hoys  study  those  noble  words,  if  they 
would  catch  the  ''Princeton  spirit." 

President  McCosh  forms  a  stately  figure 
in  the  history  of  Princeton,  and  the  im- 
pression made  by  him  on  the  public  mind 
is  too  fresh  to  require  more  than  a  passing 
mention.  A  more  majestic  personality 
could  not  be  conceived.  He  was  the  ideal 
scholar,  with  his  magnificent  head,  his  in- 

61 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

tellectual  features,  his  snowy  hair,  his  im- 
posing presence.  A  born  commander  and 
leader,  magnetic  in  his  influence  and  de- 
termined in  his  purpose,  gifted  by  nature, 
skilled  by  experience  and  study,  thor- 
oughly versed  in  the  science  of  education, 
a  student,  a  philosopher,  a  constructor,  he 
made  a  mark  on  Princeton  and  on  the  age 
in  which  he  lived  which  will  never  be  oblit- 
erated. 

Under  his  administration  Princeton  leaped 
from  a  college  into  a  university,  and  out 
of  a  condition  of  apathy  into  one  of  thril- 
ling life  and  useful  activity.  The  grad- 
uates of  the  twenty  years  of  McCosh's 
presidency  are  perhaps  the  most  ardently 
enthusiastic  of  Princeton's  sons,  and  to  the 
spirit  injected  by  him  into  the  life  of  the 
institution  is  due  much  of  that  incompar- 
able zeal  and  loyalty  which  characterizes 
the  body  of  Alumni  to-day.  What  Dr. 
McCosh  accomplished  for  Princeton  in  ma- 
terial   enlargement,  in  financial  improve- 

62 


Statue  of  McCosh  by  St.  Gaudens,  in  Marquand  Chapel. 

(Presented  by  the  Class  of  '79.) 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

ment,  in  development  of  the  curriculum,  in 
stimulus  to  learning  and  original  research, 
cannot  be  measured,  but  is  profoundly  re- 
alized ;  and  while  he  was  performing  his 
stupendous  task  he  was  doing  more  than 
one  great  man's  work  as  a  student,  writer, 
and  philosopher.  Absolutely  orthodox  ac- 
cording to  the  religious  standard  of  his 
church,  he  was  not  afraid  to  recognize  sci- 
entific truths  when  demonstrated.  ^'I  am 
a  Christian  evolutionist,"  said  he;  and  in 
his  Bedell  Lectures,  when  over  seventy,  he 
took  up,  carefully  expounded,  and  defended 
the  evolution  theory.  It  was  in  response  to 
words  of  Dr.  McCoslrs,  in  his  Inaugural, 
about  athletics,  that  a  rousing  cheer  went 
up  from  the  students,  the  immediate  effect 
of  which  was  the  erection  of  the  Marquand- 
Bonner  Gymnasium  —  from  which  it  would 
appear  that  the  Princeton  cheer  is  by  no 
means  i^ox^  et  prceterea  nihil. 

Dr.  McCosh  was  always  fully  conscious  of 
his  own  talents  and  power.   Few  men  achieve 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

mucli  who  are  not.  When  Thackeray  was 
in  America,  and  was  on  a  certain  occasion 
speaking  of  his  own  books  to  a  lady,  she  said 
Ibanteringly :  "  Mr.  Thackeray,  you  are  the 
vainest  man  I  ever  met."  "  Yes,  madam," 
he  is  said  to  have  replied  ;  "  but  you  forget 
that  I  have  a  great  deal  to  be  vain  of." 
Dr.  McCosh,  while  ordinarily  peaceable, 
was  quick  to  spring  to  the  defence  of  what 
he  called  ''my  College,"  and  many  a  man 
has  found  him  suddenly  and  vigorously 
stopping  the  way  when  a  drive  at  Prince- 
ton was  attempted.  In  the  good  doctor's 
own  words,  he  was  ''the  last  to  fight,  and  the 
last  to  flee."  A  loving  pupil  has  paved 
the  charming  path  beneath  the  overhanging 
elms  near  "Prospect"  (the  President's  resi- 
dence, where  Dr.  McCosh  lived),  and  it  has 
become  familiar  to  all  as  "McCosh  Walk." 
All  through  his  declining  years,  hardly  a 
day  passed  on  which  the  venerable  scholar 
was  not  to  be  seen  taking  his  exercise  be- 
neath that  leafy  arch.    Dr.  McCosh' s  eigh- 

64 


McCosh  Walk,  looking  East. 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

tietti  birtliday  was  a  memoralble  occasion 
at  Princeton.  He  was  presented  with  three 
separate  silver  cups,  one  by  the  Faculty, 
one  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  former  stu- 
dents at  Princeton,  then  instructors  in  dif- 
ferent colleges,  and  one  by  the  Princeton 
Club  of  New  York.  On  the  second  of  these 
were  engraved  some  lines  from  Aristopha- 
nes,—  a  tribute  to  Sophocles, — of  which  the 
following  is  a  translation : 

Good  fortune  attend  him,  hecause,  advancing 
down  the  vale  of  years,  he  busies  himself  with 
new  suljects  and  cultivates  wisdom. 

This  had  reference,  of  course,  to  that  re- 
markable characteristic  of  Dr.  McCosh's 
later  years  —  his  liberal  adoption  and  de- 
fence of  new  ideas. 

When  his  success  was  at  the  zenith,  he 
had  the  courage  to  lay  aside  the  robes  of 
ofiice  and  voluntarily  transfer  to  the  distin- 
guished scholar  who  is  now  Princeton's 
President   the   direction    of  a  work  then 

65 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

splendidly  prosperous  under  Ms  guiding 
Land.  The  words  of  his  Valedictory  linger 
pathetically  in  the  memory  of  Princeton 
men: 

The  shadows  are  lengthening,  the  day  is  de- 
dining.  I  take  this  step  as  one  of  duty.  My 
age,  seven  years  above  threescore  and  ten,  com- 
pels it,  and  the  good  of  the  college  demands  it. 
Farewell,  hill  and  dale,  mountain  and  valley, 
fountain  and  stream,  river  and  brook.  I  will 
not  forget  you.  In  my  everlasting  existence  I 
may  hope  to  visit  you  and  renew  my  ardor. 

The  great  and  good  man  has  gone  to  his 
rest ;  but  his  labors  live  after  him,  and  in 
the  affection  of  his  pupils  he  will  never  die. 

No  page  on  Princeton  can  be  complete 
without  a  tribute  of  love  and  respect  to 
President  McCosh's  noble  wife,  who  was 
sometimes  called  the  ''mother  of  the  stu- 
dents." Princeton  men  of  Dr.  McCosh's 
day  can  never  forget  the  kindly  interest 
and  tender  care  of  this  good  woman ;  and 

66 


MaRjuand  Chapel  —  Morning  Prayers. 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

her  ministrations  to  the  sick  have  been 
recognized  by  a  fitting  monnment  in  the 
''Isabella  McCosh  Infirmary,"  a  bnilding, 
thoroughly  equipped,  where  sick  students 
receive  medical  attention,  with  all  the  com- 
forts and  benefits  which  the  most  approved 
methods  of  nursing  and  modern  appliances 
can  afford. 

No  wonder  that  Princeton  men  are  proud 
of  their  ' '  Campus. ' '  Nowhere  in  this  coun- 
try can  such  a  combination  be  found 
of  grassy  lawns,  umbrageous  elms,  aca- 
demic buildings,  secluded  walks  and  ex- 
pansive playgrounds.  As  a  centre  to  the 
whole  stands  the  stately  Nassau  Hall,  on 
whose  steps  stood  Washington  and  With- 
erspoon,  and  where  the  graduates  rally 
when  they  come  back  in  after  years  to 
greet  their  mother.  Near  by  is  the  School 
of  Science,  founded  by  John  C.  Green,  one 
of  Princeton's  greatest  benefactors.  The 
Marquand  Chapel,  facing  the  Campus,  is 

67 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

one  of  Richard  M.  Hunt's  best  architec- 
tural examples.  The  new  library,  probably 
the  largest  and  finest  in  any  nniversity,  and 
the  gift  of  an  unknown  friend  through 
Moses  Taylor  Pyne,  is  a  superb  example 
of  the  old  English  Gfothic  academic  archi- 
tecture. Witherspoon  Hall  and  Dickinson 
HaU  and  Edwards  Hall  and  Dod  Hall  and 
Brown  Hall,  and  a  score  of  other  command- 
ing buildings  separated  by  greensward, 
trees,  and  walks,  make  up  a  matchless 
scene ;  and  Blair  Hall,  now  completed,  is 
a  rambling  pile  of  towers  and  dormitories, 
fascinating  to  the  appreciative  eye. 

An  old  boy  of  the  forties  or  fifties,  who 
returns  for  the  first  time  since  graduation, 
is  fairly  stunned  by  what  seems  like  a  fairy 
transformation  at  Princeton,  and  begins  to 
realize,  in  a  measure  which  no  printed  de- 
scription could  impart,  the  tremendous 
strides  which  his  dear  old  nursing  mother 
has  taken.  And  the  lover  of  Princeton 
feels  his  heart  burn  with  happy  pride  as 

68 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

lie  reflects  that  there  is  not  a  square  foot  of 
beautiful  lawn  or  a  cubic  yard  of  monu- 
mental stone  that  does  not  represent  cor- 
responding progress  in  the  inside  develop- 
ment of  the  University.  At  this  very  time 
there  is  mapped  out  the  skeleton  of  vast 
advance  movements  in  the  educational 
scheme  at  Princeton. 

The  old  boy  returning  sees  a  city  of  im- 
posing and  spacious  buildings  scattered 
gracefully  over  a  shady  campus  whose 
area  and  beauty  challenge  comparison.  He 
sees  pleasure-grounds  for  the  students  in 
profusion,  and  artificial  facilities  for  swim- 
ming only  equalled,  if  at  all,  in  great  cities. 
No  wonder  he  rubs  his  eyes  and  asks  him- 
self if  he  is  dreaming,  when  he  recollects 
how  in  his  day  one  had  to  walk  a  mile  to 
the  mill-dam  in  Stony  Brook  or  to  the  canal 
to  get  a  dip,  and  when  the  only  athletic 
field  was  a  pasture  behind  the  old  Presby- 
terian church  —  since  annexed  to  the  uni- 
versity grounds,  and  adorned  with  majestic 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

stone  structures.  In  tliis  field  used  to  stand 
a  plain  brick  wall  about  tliirty  feet  in 
length  and  of  similar  height,  against  which 
the  students  of  that  day  played  ''hand- 
ball," a  game  which  has  disappeared  at 
Princeton,  although  its  merits  deserve  a  dif- 
ferent fate.  In  this  field,  about  1859,  was 
built  a  barn-like  wooden  structure,  through 
the  activity  of  the  students  themselves, 
which  was  the  first  college  gymnasium. 
This  was  replaced  in  Dr.  McCosh's  time  by 
the  Marquand-Bonner  Gymnasium,  which 
is  still  in  use,  but  is  totally  inadequate  to 
the  requirements  of  the  enlarged  under- 
graduate body,  and  the  University  looks 
expectantly  for  the  generous  friend  who 
will  build  and  equip  a  new  one. 

The  habit  of  making  princely  gifts  to  in- 
stitutions of  learning  had  not  been  learned 
when  Princeton  was  young.  What  tre- 
mendous progress  could  be  made  to-day  if 
good  morals,  as  we  understand  them  now, 
would  tolerate  the  raising  of  money  by  the 

70 


PRINCETON —  OLD  AND  NEW 

means  employed  when  Old  North  was 
built !  Here  is  a  copy  of  a  ticket  in  a  lot- 
tery, drawn  in  Connecticut,  in  1753,  for  that 
object : 

CONNECTICUT   LOTTEEY. 

For  the  benefit  of  the  College  of  JVeio  Jersey, 
1753  Numb.  5471. 

This  ticket  entitles  the  possessor  to  such  prize 
as  may  be  drawn  against  its  number  (if  demanded 
within  six  months  after  the  drawing  is  finished) 
subject  to  a  deduction  of  15  per  cent. 

(Signed)    Nathaniel  Hubbard. 
(Indorsed)    Margaret  Chetwood. 
£2  ll5.  pd. 

In  those  days  they  often  had  to  resort,  be- 
sides, to  the  same  old  plan  for  raising  funds 
to  which  Princetonians  are  so  accustomed 
now;  for  Nassau  Hall  was  finished  up 
with  money  begged  by  the  Eev.  Samuel 
Davies  and  Grilbert  Tennent,  who  visited  the 
old  country  for  the  purpose.  If  men  of 
71 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

wealth  and  high  aims  would  only  open 
their  eyes,  they  would  see  that  in  this  old 
University,  perfumed  with  the  grace  of  re- 
ligion and  learning,  sacred  in  patriotic 
memories,  pledged  to  undying  influence  in 
the  inculcation  of  virtue  and  the  perfection 
of  education,  is  an  object  for  the  consecra- 
tion of  their  accumulations  which  no  other 
can  match  or  even  approach  in  value.  Mil- 
lions of  dollars  could  be  at  once  employed 
at  Princeton  in  ways  which  for  comprehen- 
sive usefulness  are  without  rival. 

The  characteristic  dress  of  students  at 
Princeton  has  passed  through  many  phases. 
There  have  always  been  a  shabby  class  and  a 
foppish  class,  but  the  types  have  undergone 
an  interesting  evolution.  Forty  years  ago 
the  Southern  type  was  the  predominating 
one.  It  was  the  fashion  then  for  the  young 
men  to  wear  long  hair,  smoothly  brushed 
and  cut  straight  around  about  the  lower 
neck.    A  flexible  cane  with  a  loaded  head 

72 


u 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

was  a  common  addition  to  a  smart  fellow's 
accoutrements.  What  were  called  "pump- 
soled  boots,"  so  tight  as  to  make  the  wearer 
almost  lame,  were  the  admiration  of  clod- 
hoppers who  had  not  been  initiated  into  the 
niceties  of  apparel.  City  fashions  afterward 
had  their  influence,  and  ten  years  ago  much 
attention  was  paid  to  "style."  Then  en- 
sued, a  few  years  later,  a  thoroughly  local 
habit  of  "dressing  horse,"  and  a  student 
was  considered  to  be  in  good  form  only 
when  he  wore  corduroys,  a  sweater,  a 
blazer,  or  some  equally  outlandish  outfit. 
Recently  this  custom  seems  to  have  given 
way  to  a  modified  form  of  negligee.  In  the 
winter  of  1895  the  prevailing  costume  was  a 
golfing-suit  of  rough  tweed,  with  heavy  cor- 
duroy waistcoat  or  a  sweater.  An  over- 
coat is  seldom  seen  in  Princeton.  In  the 
summer  white  ducks  prevail.  It  would 
make  a  milliner  mad  to  see  the  variety  of 
amazing  and  original  head-gears,  ranging 
from  sombreros  to  jockey-caps,  which  are 

73 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

nowadays  displayed  on  occasions  of  athletic 
contests.  The  students  who  have  so  com- 
mendably  introduced  the  Honor  System 
might  also  adopt  the  spirit  of  the  following 
college  laws,  which  were  enforced  a  hun- 
dred years  ago : 

Students  are  enjoined  to  be  ^^  cleanly/^  and  if 
any  student  shall  be  grossly  negligent  in  this  re- 
spect, it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  college  Officers 
to  admonish  him  for  it  and  see  that  he  preserve  a 
decent  appearance. 

Every  student  shall  possess  a  black  gown, 
which  shall  be  made  agreeable  to  a  fashion  which 
the  Faculty  shall  prescribe,  nor  shall  any  student 
appear  at  prayers  in  the  Hall,  or  at  church,  or  in 
the  performance  of  any  public  exercise  without 
his  gown. 

Indeed,  the  practice  of  wearing  gowns  has 
actually  been  adopted  by  the  Senior  Class, 
but  it  should  not  be  confined  to  them. 

The  time  has  never  been  when  college 
boys  did  not  find  appropriate  sobriquets 

74 


PUmCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

for  their  fellows,  and  the  funny  names  given 
to  students  have  sometimes  stuck  to  them 
through,  life.  A  classmate  of  the  writer  — 
one  of  the  most  elegant  and  charming  men, 
both  then  and  afterward  —  was  always 
known  as  "  Croppy,"  because  he  was  among 
the  first  to  adopt  the  ''blacking-brush" 
fashion  of  hair-cutting.  A  leading  politi- 
cian during  the  Tweed  dynasty,  while  at 
Princeton,  answered  cordially  to  the  name 
of  "  Greasy,"  on  account  of  the  liberal 
doses  of  oil  administered  daily  to  his  curl- 
ing locks.  From  the  last  Nassau  Herald 
the  following  are  selected  as  specimens  of 
the  nicknames  there  recorded  as  belonging 
to  the  members  of  th.e  graduating  class : 
Bung,  Mother,  Nigger,  Shorty,  Dutch, 
Skinny,  Collars,  Balaam,  Poker,  Pop, 
Sleepy,  Eushy,  Hag,  Eunt,  Duckie,  Dea- 
con, Pie,  Chip,  Easy,  Atlas,  Lugs,  Ass, 
Slim,  Beef,  Piano-legs,  Wolf,  Pork,  Chap- 
pie, Fatty,  Shad,  Shapeless,  Dog. 
It  is  tlie  custom  nowadays  to  publish,  an- 

75 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

niially  not  only  such  information  as  this, 
but  the  opinions  of  the  graduating  class 
on  such  questions  as  the  favorite  profes- 
sor, the  favorite  preacher,  magazine,  play, 
newspaper,  hymn,  bicycle,  tobacco,  beer, 
woman's  name,  etc.  The  handsomest  man 
is  voted  for,  the  most  popular,  the  best  all- 
around  fellow,  the  best  player  in  foot-ball, 
base-ball,  and  track  athletics,  the  bright- 
est, the  funniest,  the  most  awkward,  and 
the  worst  ''poller."  In  this  annual  publi- 
cation the  course  of  study  of  each  man  is 
stated,  his  intended  occupation,  religious 
denomination,  political  preference,  and  fa- 
vorite sports.  In  answer  to  the  last,  one 
man  confesses  to  a  penchant  for  "  loafing," 
while  two  others  aver  a  passion  for  "  tops" 
and  "marbles"  respectively.  The  boys 
are  required  to  say  whether  they  play  cards 
or  billiards,  whether  they  smoke,  chew, 
dance,  wear  glasses,  have  a  beard,  and  even 
to  acknowledge  it  if  engaged  ;  also  whether 
they  have  been  summoned  before  the  Fac- 
76 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

ulty,  or  been  sent  home,  or  have  written 
verse  —  which  last  seems  to  be  the  climax 
of  folly. 

A  most  interesting  branch  of  information 
in  this  annnal  is  in  regard  to  average 
expenditures.  An  erroneous  impression 
that  only  the  rich  can  go  through  a  great 
university  like  Princeton  is  prevalent  in 
some  quarters.  The  contrary  is  emphati- 
cally the  fact.  A  year  or  two  ago  a  careful 
analysis  was  made  of  the  outlay  of  students 
at  Princeton,  and  it  was  found  that  seven 
of  the  first-group  Seniors  of  the  Academic 
Department,  graduating  magna  cum  laude^ 
averaged  $442.68  annually  for  all  expenses, 
including  tuition,  and  one  of  them  averaged 
less  than  $300  during  his  course.  The 
average  expenses  of  all  the  students  in- 
vestigated were  less  than  $500  a  year,  while 
it  was  found  that  many  a  fellow  was  able  to 
go  through  the  university  course  for  less 
than  $300,  provided  he  obtained  a  scholar- 
ship ;  and  the  instances  are  not  few  where 
77 


PRINCETOK  — OLD  AND  NEW 

bright  men  have  actually  earned  more  than 
enough  to  pay  all  expenses  by  outside 
tutoring,  conducting  eating  clubs,  selling 
books,  corresponding  with  newspapers,  edit- 
ing syllabi,  working  during  vacation,  and 
other  legitimate  enterprises.  While  it  un- 
doubtedly costs  more  to  be  educated  than 
it  did  a  hundred  years  ago,  the  cost  has  by 
no  means  increased  in  proportion  to  the 
general  advance  of  prices  in  other  directions. 

The  old  cannon,  planted  muzzle  down  in 
the  centre  of  the  Quadrangle  south  of  Old 
North,  has  been  written  and  sung  about 
to  such  an  extent  that  it  is  as  familiar  as 
a  household  word.  What  a  centre  it  has 
been  of  popular  student  life  !  The  Yale 
men  bewailed  the  destruction  of  their  his- 
toric fence ;  but  Goths  and  Yandals  would 
be  as  amiable  lambs  to  the  person  who 
should  dare  even  to  suggest  the  removal  of 
the  Revolutionary  relic,  now  become  a  col- 
lege idol.    Princeton  once  had  a  fence,  as 

78 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

well  as  Yale.  Fifty  years  ago  the  front 
Campus  was  bordered  with  an  old  wooden 
fence,  which  had  stood  there  for  generations, 
and  on  which  the  students  used  to  sit  and 
smoke  and  tell  tales ;  but  it  had  to  give  way, 
in  the  march  of  progress,  to  the  stately  iron 
grille  which  now  ornaments  the  front.  But 
whenever  a  hostile  hand  has  been  laid  on 
the  cannon  of  Princeton,  big  or  little,  there 
has  been  war ;  and  peace  has  never  fol- 
lowed until  the  cannon  was  safe  at  rest 
again  in  its  place.  There  has  been  more  or 
less  confusion  about  Princeton's  cannons, 
there  having  been  at  least  three,  of  different 
sizes,  which  have  been  prized  as  relics. 

The  big  old  cannon  was  left  in  Princeton 
by  the  British  when  routed  by  Washington, 
January  3,  1777.  The  latter  could  not  take 
it  away  when  he  left  Princeton,  because  the 
carriage  was  broken .  It  was  held  by  the  citi- 
zens at  first  as  a  relic.  In  the  War  of  1812 
the  big  cannon  was  sent  to  New  Brunswick 
to  defend  that  city.    Hardly  used  because 

79 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

of  its  supposed  impairment,  it  lay  tliere  on 
the  Commons  until  1836,  when  some  Prince- 
tonians  brought  it  back  for  the  purpose  of 
firing  salutes  on  the  Fourth  of  July.  In 
1838  the  boys  placed  it  on  the  Campus,  and 
in  1841  it  was  plugged  and  planted  in  the 
ground,  where  it  has  remained  ever  since, 
by  general  consent,  under  the  guardianship 
of  the  students.  When  the  old  cannon  was 
brought  from  Jugtown  (a  suburb  of  Prince- 
ton), "  Old  Johnnie"  was  aroused,  as  usual, 
by  the  commotion,  and,  coming  out  with 
his  lantern,  undertook  to  break  up  what  he 
thought  was  a  row,  shouting,  ''You  are 
recognized  !  You  are  recognized ! "  which 
only  provoked  roars  of  laughter.  Dr.  Mc- 
Cosh  probably  acted  from  a  similar  instinct, 
in  later  years,  when,  on  the  occurrence  of 
disorder  in  the  class-room,  he  is  reported  to 
have  said  :  ''I  know  you !  —  within  one  or 
two." 

It  was  an  entirely  different  cannon  which, 
in  1875,  was  secretly  taken  from  Princeton 

80 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

to  New  Brunswick  Iby  students  of  Rutgers 
College,  under  tlie  false  impression  (doubt- 
less arising  from  ttie  incident  just  related) 
that  it  had  at  some  former  time  "belonged 
there.  Then  broke  out  the  war  which  kept 
Princeton  College  in  a  fury  of  excitement 
for  many  days,  and  occupied  the  columns 
of  the  daily  press,  and  almost  led  to  blood- 
shed. The  Princetonians  repeatedly  tried 
to  recover  the  gun,  and,  failing  to  find  it, 
some  of  the  more  unruly  committed  un- 
pardonable depredations  upon  the  property 
of  Rutgers  College  by  way  of  reprisal,  in 
the  heat  of  their  zeal  for  their  Alma  Mater. 
The  feud  reached  such  a  pitch  that  the 
faculties  of  both  colleges  had  to  interfere, 
and  a  joint  commission  was  organized  to 
try  the  facts  and  the  law,  and  to  render 
judgment.  The  conclusions  of  this  commis- 
sion were  unanimously  in  favor  of  the  re- 
turn of  the  cannon  to  Princeton,  and  it  was 
brought  back  in  triumph  with  demonstra- 
tive rejoicings.    At  the  celebration  in  honor 

81 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

of  the  restitution  of  the  relic,  President 
McCosIl  was  called  ont  by  the  students. 
As  ever,  ready  to  show  his  interest  in 
whatever  concerned  the  boys,  the  old  man 
said: 

"  The  cannon  is  back ;  the  Campus  would 
not  have  been  a  campus  without  it.  I 
knew  it  would  come  back  to  us,  and  I  told 
the  students  so.  This  has  been  the  greatest 
war  since  the  siege  of  Troy.  The  cannon 
represents  fair  Helen ;  the  fellows  who  took 
it  the  treacherous  Paris ;  and  I  see  all  around 
me  the  brave  Agamemnons  and  Nestors. 
We  have  also  our  Atrides  in  the  newspaper 
reporters,  who  have  exaggerated  and  ridi- 
culed the  whole  affair.  But  now  that  the 
war  is  over,  the  next  thing  is  to  write  a  his- 
tory of  that  war.  It  must  be  written  in 
Greek ;  in  hexameter,  just  as  Homer  wrote  ; 
and  we  will  have  it  published.  And  if  it  is 
as  good  as  Homer's  Gfreek  I  will  give  the 
author  of  it  a  place  on  the  commencement 
stage  next  June,  and  will  assure  him  an 

82 


Cannon  Exercises  on  Class  Day  —  the  Presentation  Oration. 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

audience  to  hear  it  read,  even  thongli  it  be 
as  long  as  Homer's  poem." 

Around  the  cannon  occur  the  nocturnal 
meetings  of  the  students.  There  take  place 
the  celebrations  of  athletic  victories,  when 
bonfires  are  built  which  shoot  their  flames 
to  the  very  clouds.  Around  the  cannon  is 
placed  the  Amphitheatre,  where  the  Class 
Day  exercises  are  held  at  graduation.  Every 
year  the  Sophomores  paint  the  cannon  green 
in  derision  of  the  Freshman  Class  ;  and  des- 
picable indeed  is  the  Freshman  Class  which 
does  not  dare  to  remove  the  paint,  at  the 
risk  of  destruction  by  the  Sophomores. 
Many  is  the  man  who  has  *^  sought  the 
bubble  reputation  at  the  cannon's  mouth," 
as  he  spoke  his  "Presentation  Oration" 
on  Class  Day.  Every  student  with  a  weak- 
ness or  a  peculiarity  is  called  out  on  these 
occasions  before  his  class  and  pelted  un- 
mercifully with  witty  lampoons.  Around 
the  cannon  have  been  conducted  those  cere- 
monies which  the  students  deem  reverent 

83 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

and  fitting  at  the  "burial   of  Euclid  and 
other  defunct  text-books. 

Half  a  century  ago  it  was  the  custom  to 
banish  "  suspended"  students  whose  homes 
were  distant  to  a  farm  four  or  five  miles 
from  Princeton,  owned  by  a  brother-in-law 
of  President  Carnahan.  This  was  called 
'^  rustication."  The  friends  of  the  culprit 
were  forbidden  to  visit  him,  but  it  is  need- 
less to  say  that  this  rule  was  enthusiasti- 
cally violated.  Two  fellows  in  the  forties, 
whose  nicknames  were  "Beach-Island" 
and  "Mac,"  were  compulsory  guests  at  this 
retreat ;  and  while  a  party  of  congenial  col- 
lege friends  were  handing  over  to  them  the 
cigars  and  other  supplies  they  had  brought 
to  cheer  them  in  their  captivity,  a  narrow 
closet  in  the  side  of  the  chimney,  formerly 
called  a  "  catmallison,"  was  shown  to  them, 
and  the  host  explained  that  it  was  a  cus- 
tom with  his  boarders  to  cut  their  names 
on  the  inside  of  the  door  of  this  closet.  On 
examination,  it  was  found  that  the  name  of 

84 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Mac's  father  was  cut  there,  with  the  date 
''1808,"  and  just  beneath  it  Mac  pro- 
ceeded to  carve  his  own  name.  It  is  de- 
clared that  Mac  was  not  the  only  student 
who  found  his  paternal  ancestor's  name 
on  record  there. 

The  famous  negroes  of  Princeton  cannot 
be  forgotten  by  Princeton  men.  An  old 
darky  named  Sambo  supplied  the  students 
with  shinny- sticks  half  a  century  ago. 
Anthony  Simmons  used  to  be  the  town  ca- 
terer. ''Buck"  was  the  factotum  of  Pro- 
fessor Schenck  along  about  the  sixties.  A 
black  man  named  Peter  Scudder,  a  veri- 
table "Uncle  Pemus,"  used  to  sell  pies  to 
the  students,  and  ice-cream  at  a  "levy"  a 
plate,  fifty  years  ago,  and  was  known  as 
"  Peter  Polite."  One  night  a  Senior,  whose 
room  he  entered  to  vend  his  wares,  asked 
him :  "  Peter,  what  perquisites  accrue  to 
yourself  from  this  nocturnal  perambula- 
tion ? "     Peter  bowed  low,  and  with  courtly 

85 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

gravity  said:  ''Will  the  gentleman  please 
speak  Englisli?" 

"  Sam  "  was  a  servant  to  Professor  Joseph 
Henry,  who  discovered  the  principle  of  the 
electric  telegraph.  He  was  a  mulatto  with  a 
shock  of  bright-red  hair,  and  used  to  sell  tur- 
keys and  chickens  to  the  students,  after  roast- 
ing them  at  the  refectory  kitchen,  for  which 
he  was  paid  in  cast-off  clothes.  One  evening 
some  of  his  customers  complained  that  the 
turkey  was  tough.  ' '  I  am  sorry,  gentlemen, ' ' 
said  Sam;  ''but  it  was  the  best  I  could 
find  in  Commodore  Stockton's  flock!" 

The  "Campus  wire,"  as  the  students 
called  it,  was  the  thing  which  excited  the 
most  wonderful  speculation  when  Professor 
Henry  was  at  Princeton.  Dr.  Edward  Ship- 
pen,  of  Philadelphia,  of  the  Class  of  '45, 
states  that  it  ran  along  from  Philosophical 
Hall  by  the  front  of  North  College,  among 
the  outer  branches  of  some  of  the  fine  trees, 
and  then  round  the  western  end  to  Pro- 
fessor Henry's  house,  which  was  west  of 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

North  College,  and  south  of  the  old  Li- 
brary and  Recitation  Hall.  This  wire  was 
the  first  in  which  the  current  was  com- 
pleted through  the  earth.  It  went  into 
the  well  at  the  Professor's  house,  the  other 
end  being  in  the  earth  at  Philosophical 
Hall.  Professor  Henry  often  used  the 
'^ Campus  wire"  in  the  presence  of  the 
students,  although  he  was  not  given  to 
superfluous  experiments.  He  had  an  arbi- 
trary code.  K  he  wanted  his  luncheon  sent 
over,  he  worked  his  armature  a  few  times 
according  to  the  code.  Mrs.  Henry  received 
the  message.  The  students  waited,  and 
presently  Sam  would  appear,  bringing 
the  precise  articles  ordered,  on  a  tray 
covered  with  a  napkin.  This  simple  exhi- 
bition of  what  is  now  an  every-day  trans- 
action was  then  a  source  of  wonder.  This 
occurred  again  and  again  before  Morse 
telegraphed  between  Baltimore  and  Wash- 
ington, which  was  in  the  month  of  May, 
1844. 

87 


PEINCETON  —  OLD  AND  NEW 

But  perhaps  tlie  black  man  best  known 
to  the  longest  list  of  graduates  is  the  now 
celebrated  Jim  Johnson.  He  will  be  found 
on  the  Campus  to-day,  in  silver  spectacles 
and  golfing- stockings,  and  he  was  there 
fifty  years  ago.  He  has  bought  the  cast- 
off  clothes  of  the  students  for  a  half-century. 
When  the  author  of  this  volume  was  in 
college,  Jim  used  to  furnish  oyster  suppers, 
and  many  a  good  pair  of  trousers  has  passed 
into  his  shop  to  square  an  account  for  a 
feast  already  eaten.  Jim  stuttered  badly, 
and  still  stutters ;  and  the  students  used  to 
give  him  a  shilling  to  say  '^  Philadelphia" 
and  other  long  words  which  threatened  to 
suffocate  him.  Jim  remembers  every  grad- 
uate, and  calls  him  by  name  ;  and  a  shade 
of  sorrow  passes  over  his  ebony  face, 
fringed  with  gray  beard,  if  the  old  friend 
does  not  '^come  down"  with  a  quarter. 

A  few  years  ago  William  H.  McElroy, 
the  litterateur,  a  graduate  of  Union  College, 
attended  a  Yale-Princeton  foot-ball  match. 

88 


—     "o 


Q     3 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

As  lie  came  out  lie  saw  Jim.  He  did  n't 
know  him,  but  he  guessed  from  the  way  he 
was  covered  with  orange-and -black  decora- 
tions that  he  was  an  old  college  favorite. 
So  he  marched  up  to  him,  and  said : 
"Hello!  Don't  you  remember  Reynolds, 
of  ^65V^  This  touched  Jim  on  the  raw, 
and  he  at  once  replied,  with  absolute  con- 
fidence :  ''Oh,  ye-yes,  Mr.  Rey-rey-reynolds, 
I  remember  you  puf-puf-puffectly,  Mr. 
Rey-rey-reynolds, ' '  And  he  got  his  quarter 
just  the  same.  The  students  decorated  Jim 
with  a  decidedly  racy  name,  not  here  to  be 
recorded.  It  is  softened  nowadays  into 
''James  Odoriferous."  His  history  is  part 
of  the  history  of  our  country.  He  was  a 
fugitive  slave  in  1843,  and  his  real  name 
was  James  Collins.  He  belonged  to  Philip 
Wallis,  of  Maryland.  He  was  recognized 
after  his  escape  by  a  student  named 
Thomas,  and  was  claimed  by  his  master, 
under  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  The  late 
William  C.  Alexander  appeared  for  Jim, 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AISTD  NEW 

and  demanded  a  trial  hy  jury  nnder  the 
State  law.  The  distinguished  S.  Teackle 
Wallis,  son  of  the  claimant,  supported  the 
claim.  After  a  trial  and  great  excitement,  a 
verdict  was  rendered  for  the  claimant,  and 
an  order  issued  by  the  court  handing  Jim 
over  to  the  marshal  from  Maryland.  An 
effort  was  immediately  made  hy  citizens  to 
purchase  and  liberate  him,  and  the  price 
demanded  ($550)  was  actually  paid  by  Miss 
Theodora  Prevost,  a  lineal  descendant  of 
President  Witherspoon,  and  the  captive  was 
set  free.  It  is  to  Jim's  credit  that  he  saved 
enough  money  afterward  to  cancel  the  deht 
to  his  benefactress,  and  he  can  show  the 
book  containing  the  items  receipted.  Jim 
was  married  in  1895  for  the  fourth  time,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-eight,  the  bride  being  a 
resident  of  Baltimore. 

The  Princeton  Inn  of  to-day,  which  stands 
so  gracefully  on  the  wooded  estate  of  ''Mor- 
ven,"  the  hereditary  seat  of  the  Stocktons, 

90 


o 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

so  totally  eclipses  the  modest  Nassau  Hotel 
that  few  of  its  fashionable  guests  stop  to 
think  of  the  part  which  that  little  hostelry 
has  played  in  the  old-time  life  of  the  Uni- 
versity. Its  walls  are  redolent  of  jovial 
suppers,  and  its  stable  of  clandestine  sleigh- 
rides  ;  and  its  hospitable  landlords  for 
nearly  half  a  century  made  the  ancient  tav- 
ern, built  in  1757,  the  scene  of  many  a  mem- 
orable college  event.  It  was  the  stopping- 
place  for  the  stage-coaches  between  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  before  the  railroads 
were  known ;  and  more  than  a  hundred 
horses  would  stand  waiting,  in  those  days, 
to  replace  the  tired  beasts  of  the  incoming 
travellers.  It  was  at  the  Nassau  Hotel,  in 
1814,  that  Washington  Irving  and  James 
K.  Paulding  stopped,  and  at  which  time 
was  conceived  and  partially  written  the 
poem,  '^The  Lay  of  the  Scottish  Fiddle," 
attributed  to  Paulding,  in  which  the  vari- 
ous sights  about  a  college  inn  were  humor- 
ously depicted.    Here  is  an  extract : 

91 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Around  the  tablets  verge  was  spread 
Full  many  a  wine-bewildered  bead 
Of  student  learned  from  Nassau  Hall, 
Who,  broken  from  scholastic  thrall. 
Had  set  him  down  to  drink  outright 
Through  all  the  livelong  merry  night. 
And  sing  as  loud  as  he  could  bawl ; 
Such  is  the  custom  of  Nassau  Hall. 
No  Latin  now  or  heathen  Greek 
The  Senior^s  double  tongue  can  speak; 
Juniors  from  famed  Pierian  fount 
Had  drank  so  deep  they  scarce  could  count 
The  candles  on  the  reeling  table; 
While  emulous  Freshmen,  hardly  able 
To  drink,  their  stomachs  were  so  full. 
Hiccoughed,  and  took  another  pull. 
Right  glad  to  see  their  merry  host. 
Who  never  wine  or  wassail  crost. 
They  willed  him  join  the  merry  throng 
And  grace  their  revels  with  a  song. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  that  '^  athlet- 
ics," as  nowadays  understood,  were  then 
unknown  at  Princeton  or  any  other  Ameri- 

92 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

can  college.  If  tliat  admirable  vent  for 
youtMul  exulDerance  had  existed  in  those 
days,  Paulding  would  have  had  no  oppor- 
tunity to  paint  that  somewhat  startling  pic- 
ture of  abandonment.  It  has  been  only 
within  the  past  twenty-five  years  that, 
through  intercollegiate  contests,  a  stimulus 
to  healthy  exercise  and  manly  sports  has 
been  given.  The  result,  with  all  its  ac- 
knowledged failings,  is  something  for  every 
right-minded  father  of  a  family  to  be  thank- 
ful for.  That  wild  fellows  still  seek  fatal 
amusement  in  debauch  is  undeniable.  This 
is  the  earth,  not  heaven.  But  the  tempta- 
tions are  less  than  formerly,  and  the  aspi- 
rations of  students  are  more  manly.  The 
athletes  may  be  more  of  heroes  than  is  best, 
but  the  rank  and  file  of  college  men  are 
bigger,  stronger,  healthier,  stouter  in  mind 
and  limb,  and  better  equipped  for  the  after 
struggle,  than  they  used  to  be  ;  and  all  this 
without  detriment  to  the  average  scholar- 
ship.   The  assertion  is  ventured  that  col- 

93 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

lege  graduates,  on  the  whole,  are  far  better 
educated  to-day  than  they  were  twenty -five 
years  ago,  and  that  the  athletes  are  not 
below  the  others,  taking  the  average  of 
both. 

The  hard  students  are,  and  always  have 
been,  called  "Polers."  It  is  a  term  pecu- 
liar to  Princeton.  Polers  used  to  be  sickly- 
looking  fellows,  and  the  popular  belief  was 
that  they  generally  died  soon  after  gradu- 
ation. All  this  has  changed.  The  growth 
of  athletics  has  developed  a  sturdy  set  of 
fellows  even  among  the  Polers,  and  it  is  not 
an  uncommon  thing  for  men  who  take  honors 
in  out-of-door  sports  to  win  also  the  prizes 
in  scholarship. 

In  athletic  sports  Princeton  has  always 
been  a  leader,  a  fact  which  prompted  a 
prominent  Dutchman  in  New  York  to  ren- 
der the  Holland  motto,  Oranje  hoven, 
*' Princeton  on  top."  Princeton  holds  the 
only  rational  ground  in  this  domain,  which 
is  that  athletics  are  beneficial  so  long  as 

94 


Trophy-room  in  Athletic  Club-house. 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

thej  are  not  permitted  to  interfere  with 
scholarsliip. 

Princeton  is  redolent  with,  athletic  tradi- 
tions. Fifty  years  ago  they  had  foot-hall, 
hut  not  the  Rngby  game;  and  Judge 
Hagner,  of  Washington,  who  was  there  at 
that  time,  says :  "  Shinny  they  had,  and 
skating-matches  on  the  canal."  The  canal 
has  heen  also  at  times  the  training  course 
for  boating,  and  Ben  NicoU  and  his  '77  crew 
made  themselves  famous  in  1874,  by  win- 
ning the  intercollegiate  Freshman  race  at 
Saratoga  Lake.  But  this  success  was  me- 
teoric. Princeton  only  has  been  proficient 
in  aquatics  when  she  has  roused  herself  oc- 
casionally from  her  devotion  to  other  more 
congenial  activities. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  as  long  ago 
as  1842  a  "  crowd  "  of  Juniors  (that  was  the 
term  used  in  those  days  for  a  group  of  con- 
genial friends)  bought  an-eight  oared  rac- 
ing-boat from  a  club  in  New  York,  and 
launched  it  on  the  Delaware  and  Raritan 

95 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Canal.  After  organizing  and  getting  their 
costumes,  it  occurred  to  tlie  boys  that  it 
would  be  just  as  well  to  get  the  sanction  of 
the  Vice-President.  A  living  member  of 
the  Class  of  '43  states  that  he  was  deputed 
to  attend  to  the  matter.  He  called  on  "  Old 
Johnnie,"  who,  to  his  surprise,  showed  reluc- 
tance to  consent,  on  the  ground  that  he 
feared  the  students  would  be  missing  recita- 
tions and  prayers.  The  ambassador,  how- 
ever, was  a  bom  diplomat,  and  knew  his 
man  withal.  He  succeeded  in  shaking  the 
good  old  man's  objection  by  assurances 
that  the  rowing  would  be  done  after  even- 
ing prayers  ;  and  then  —  remembering  the 
interest  that  "  Johnnie  "  took  in  the  reading 
by  the  Junior  Class  of  the  Greek  tragedies 
with  him  —  he  told  him  that  they  would 
name  the  boat  Medea  in  his  honor,  and 
carried  his  point. 

It  was  a  Princeton  man  who  revised  the 
Rugby  rules  of  foot-ball  and  adapted  them 
for  American  colleges  —  J.  Potter,  of  the 

96 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Class  of  '77.  Andrew  James  McCosli,  son 
of  the  illustrious  President  McCosb,  was 
Captain  of  tlie  Princeton  team  that  year. 
His  team  played  the  '^ Association"  style 
of  game  during  most  of  the  season,  l)ut 
relinquished  it  to  adopt  Potter's  new  mode 
of  play.  The  intercollegiate  world  adopted 
it  immediately,  and  the  present  game  in- 
cludes most  of  its  features.  Alexander 
Moffat,  Captain  of  the  '83  team,  was  Prince- 
ton's most  famous  kicker.  Lamar  made 
the  celebrated  run  which  plucked  victory 
from  defeat  in  the  game  against  Yale  in  ^85. 
The  "curve"  in  pitching,  in  base-ball, 
which  has  become  universal  as  an  essen- 
tial feature,  was  invented  and  first  applied 
in  an  amateur  game,  in  the  fall  of  1874,  by 
J.  M.  Mann,  of  Princeton,  Class  of  '76.  Tlie 
''wedge,"  in  foot-ball,  from  which  have 
developed  all  the  mass  plays  now  the  sub- 
ject of  so  much  discussion,  was  invented  by 
the  Hodges,  of  Princeton,  who  learned  it 
from  studying  Caesar's  "Commentaries  on 

97 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

tlie  Gallic  War"  ;  and  tlie  same  men  intro- 
duced the  modern  system  of  bringing  the 
"  backs  "  up  close  to  the  line.  A  Princeton 
man  (Smock,  '79)  invented  the  canvas  jacket. 
On  all  public  occasions  student  enthu- 
siasm finds  expression  in  the  well-known 
Princeton  cheer — the  *' sky-rocket,"  as  it 
has  been  called.  Undergraduates  of  to-day 
may  think  it  has  come  down  from  a  time 
"  whereof  the  memory  of  man  runneth  not 
to  the  contrary."  But  this  would  be  an 
error.  All  college  cheers  are  of  modern 
date.  Princeton's  is  among  the  oldest; 
nevertheless,  thirty-six  years  ago  it  was 
unknown.  Where  did  it  come  from  ?  Who 
invented  it?  These  are  momentous  ques- 
tions, and  are  answered  differently  by  dif- 
ferent men.  A  member  of  the  Class  of  '60 
declares  that  the  late  Dr.  Woolsey  Johnson, 
of  New  York,  of  that  class,  first  sounded 
the  '^Hooray,  hooray,  hooray!  Tiger,  siss- 
boom-ah,  Princeton!"  in  one  of  Professor 
Schenck's  recitations. 

98 


PEmCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Alexander  Porter  Morse,  of  WasMngton, 
of  the  Class  of  '62,  claims  that  the  cheer 
was  consecrated  during  what  he  calls 
the  nodes  ambrosiancB  of  the  "  McVeigli 
Group,"  between  1858  and  1861,  and  ad- 
duces the  written  testimony  in  his  own 
Princeton  autograph-book,  where,  over  the 
literary  contribution  of  a  fellow-collegian, 
written  in  June,  1860,  is  found  this  cabalistic 
combination : 

' '  Sh-sTi-hoom!  !    ATi-Ti-Ji-li-Ti-n  ! ' ' 

But  Chancellor  Alexander  T.  McGill,  of 
the  Class  of  '64,  says  he  remembers  quite 
distinctly  when  the  Seventh  Kegiment  of 
New  York  went  to  the  war,  and  how  nearly 
the  whole  College  went  down  through  the 
Potter  Woods  to  the  old  de^Dot  by  the  canal 
at  midnight  to  greet  it  as  it  passed  through. 
The  cheers  of  the  boys  were  responded  to 
by  the  Seventh  with  the  "  sky-rocket,"  which 
so  impressed  the  youthful  mind  that  it  was 
indulged  in,  at  first  as  borrowed  property, 

99 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

and  later,  as  time  advanced,  was  adopted 
as  the  college  cheer. 

That,  by  the  way,  was  a  dark  day  in 
Princeton's  history.  About  one  third  of 
the  students  were  from  the  South,  and  the 
breach  made  in  the  ranks  by  the  war  was 
a  serious  shock  to  the  College,  from  which 
it  recovered  only  after  years,  during  which 
the  institution  languished.  War  was  pro- 
claimed about  the  middle  of  April.  Then 
everything  was  excitement  and  commotion. 
The  under-classmen  prepared  at  once  to 
cross  the  lines.  The  situation  of  the  Seniors 
was  more  serious.  Were  they  to  lose  their 
degrees?  Remaining  a  few  days  longer, 
most  of  them  took  special  examinations, 
and  the  names  of  nearly  all  appeared  in  the 
official  circular  as  "  not  regularly  exam- 
ined," but  they  ultimately  received  their 
degrees.  Their  diplomas  were  held  for  de- 
livery by  different  methods.  Leroy  H. 
Anderson,  of  the  Class  of  '61,  since  Mayor 
of  Princeton,  was  made  the  custodian  of 

100 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

many ;  but,  alas !  in  some  cases  lie  was 
obliged  to  hand  tliem  to  sorrowing  heirs, 
the  owners  having  been  killed  in  battle. 
It  was  a  curious  thing  that  in  the  military 
preparations  wliich  went  on  in  Princeton, 
as  elsewhere,  in  those  martial  days,  North- 
ern and  Southern  students,  so  soon  to  face 
each  other  in  mortal  combat,  actually 
drilled  together  under  the  direction  of  the 
officers  of  the  local  companies.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  bombardment  in  Charleston 
harbor,  the  venerable  Dr.  Maclean,  then 
President  of  the  College,  called  the  students 
together  in  the  old  chapel,  and  addressed 
them  on  the  situation.  The  old  man's  heart 
was  wrung  by  the  conflict  of  emotions.  He 
told  the  boys  that  conciliatory  measures 
having  failed,  and  war  being  inevitable,  he 
and  the  other  members  of  the  Faculty  were 
bound  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Union. 
But  he  was  concerned  about  the  Southern 
students,  and  advised  them  all  to  return 
immediately  to  their  homes.     He  assured 

101 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

them  of  his  affection  and  Ms  regret  at  part- 
ing, and  promised  them  that  they  would  be 
followed  by  fervent  prayers  throughout  the 
troublous  times  which  were  likely  to  ensue. 
Before  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  the  policy 
of  the  College  was  wisely  that  of  neutrality. 
It  favored  the  Peace  Commission  at  Wash- 
ington, and  hoped  that  through  mutual  con- 
cessions war  would  be  averted.  Hostilities 
once  declared,  the  College,  of  course,  ranged 
itself  on  the  side  of  the  government.  In 
the  autograph-books  which  were  circulated 
during  the  year  1861  nearly  all  the  South- 
ern boys  added  to  their  addresses,  after  the 
States,  the  ominous  initials  *'C.  S.  A." 
They  were  already  regarding  themselves  as 
foreigners.  One  student  wrote :  "  Alas  !  we 
are  no  longer  countrymen.  My  country  is  in 
arms  against  yours.  But  there  will  always 
be  peace  between  classmates."  Another 
wrote :  "  I  am  just  about  to  cross  the  lines, 
and  it  is  probable  we  shall  never  meet 
again;    but   we   will   always   cherish   the 

102 


PRINCETON —  OLD  AND  NEW 

friendly  feeling  whicli  existed  througli  our 
college  days." 

The  mingling  of  political  acrimony  with 
fraternal  attachment,  and  the  domination 
of  the  latter  sentiment  while  the  war  spirit 
was  actually  disrupting  the  College  body, 
was  as  pathetic  as  it  was  remarkable.  The 
hundred  or  more  undergraduates  who  left 
Princeton  for  their  Southern  homes  were 
escorted  to  the  station  by  the  body  of 
Northern  students,  and  they  parted  in 
friendship,  although  some  of  them  after- 
ward met  on  the  battle-field.  When  Col- 
lege opened  in  the  autumn,  feeling,  of  course, 
ran  high  against  Southern  sympathizers. 
Two  who  were  outspoken  were  put  under 
the  old  pump  and  thoroughly  drenched  by 
several  students.  College  discipline  had  to 
be  exercised,  and  the  offenders  were  sus- 
pended. One  of  these  was  a  son  of  Gov- 
ernor Reeder,  of  Pennsylvania;  another 
was  Samuel  B.  Huey,  of  Philadelphia ;  and 
the  third  was  Casey,  of  '64.    Upon  their 

m 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

expulsion  they  were  taken  to  the  station  in 
a  "barouche  embellished  with  the  national 
colors,  drawn  Iby  the  students,  and  accom- 
panied by  a  long  procession  preceded  by  a 
military  band.  Huey  returned  and  gradu- 
ated, then  entered  the  U.  S.  service,  and 
afterward  became  a  leading  lawyer  in  Phila- 
delphia. He  received  his  degree  of  A.  M. 
in  due  course.  Howard  Reeder  afterward 
entered  the  army  and  distinguished  himself, 
has  been  Judge  of  Northampton  County, 
Pennsylvania,  and  has  been  appointed  by 
Governor  Hastings  one  of  the  new  Circuit 
Court  judges.  At  the  June  meeting,  in 
1895,  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Uni- 
versity, the  degrees  of  A.  B.  and  A.  M.  were 
conferred  on  Reeder. 

No  American  University  has  been  more 
on  the  alert  than  Princeton  to  grasp  every 
advantageous  opportunity  for  advance  in 
education ;  but  it  is  her  pride  that  she  re- 
fuses to  be  driven  by  modern  experiment- 
104 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

alists  from  strongliolds  wMch  she  believes 
protect  principles  not  to  be  surrendered. 
Tlie  stand  wliicli  Dr.  McCosh  made  for 
religion  in  College  will  not  be  forgotten. 

Charles  Francis  Adams,  in  his  celebrated 
address  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society 
at  Cambridge,  attacked  the  study  of  the 
classics  as  a  ''college  fetich."  No  one  can 
measure  as  yet  the  injury  done  to  scholar- 
ship by  the  practical  adoption  of  his  views  in 
some  of  our  great  universities.  Princeton 
has  perhaps  not  altogether  escaped  the  effect 
of  the  influence;  but  Princeton,  nevertheless, 
made  a  stand,  and  still  holds  it.  The  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Arts  at  Princeton  means  what 
it  was  intended  to  mean,  and  the  best  tradi- 
tions are  not  dishonored  in  the  conferring  of 
it.  Princeton  has  not  yet  surrendered  to 
the  intensely  practical  American  idea  which 
tests  everything  by  the  utilitarian  gauge. 
Culture  and  taste  and  learning  as  discon- 
nected with  what  they  will  produce  in  dol- 
lars and  cents  have  still  a  high  place  there. 

105 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

Princeton's  ''Grand  Old  Man,"  McCosh, 
advanced  and  intrepid  as  lie  was  in  all 
reasonable  ways,  struck  the  right  note  when 
he  said:  ''I  hold  that  there  are  branches 
rudimentary  and  fundamental,  which  have 
stood  the  test  of  time,  fitted  to  call  forth  the 
deeper  and  higher  faculties  of  the  mind,  and 
opening  the  way  to  further  knowledge, 
wMcli  all  sTiould  he  required  to  study. 
Such,  in  language,  are  the  classical  tongues, 
with  certain  European  ones,  and,  above  all, 
our  own  tongue,  all  of  these  with  their  litera- 
tures. Such,  in  science,  are  mathematics, 
physics,  chemistry,  and  certain  branches  of 
natural  history.  Such,  in  philosophy,  are 
the  study  of  the  human  mind,  psychology, 
logic,  ethics,  and  political  economy.  A 
young  man  is  not  liberally  educated  who 
has  been  allowed  to  omit  any  of  these,  and 
certain  of  them  should  be  required  in  every 
year  of  the  course  to  keep  the  mind  from 
being  dissipated  and  wasted. ' '  "  This, "  the 
New  York  Tribune  said,  ''is,  in  fact,  the 
106 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

key-note  to  tlie  course  in  Princeton.' '  There 
are  special  courses,  and  scientific  courses ; 
but  to  have  the  time-honored  badge  of  a 
liberal  education,  the  Bachelor's  degree, 
the  student  must  master  the  fundamental 
studies  justifying  the  decoration. 

It  is  a  fact  worth  noting  that  James 
Russell  Lowell,  the  accomplished  Harvard 
scholar  and  statesman,  had  no  sympathy 
with  the  war  upon  the  classics  as  ^'fetiches." 
''If  the  classical  languages  are  dead,"  said 
he,  "they  yet  speak  to  us  with  a  clearer 
voice  than  any  living  tongue.  If  their 
language  is  dead,  the  literature  it  inspires 
is  crammed  with  life  as  perhaps  no  other 
literature  except  Shakespeare's  ever  was  or 
will  be."  He  was  outspoken  for  Greek,  and 
for  strong  discipline  in  college  studies. 

Memories,  sad  as  well  as  sweet,  serious  as 
well  as  ludicrous,  crowd  upon  the  mind  of 
every  son  of  Old  Nassau  who  takes  a  pen  to 
write  of  the  happy  days  gone  by.    Many  a 

107 


PRINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

tale  could  be  told  of  tlie  ^'Fantastics,"  who 
used  to  ride  througli  the  town  m  motley 
costumes,  at  Commencement  time,  on  horse- 
back ;  of  the  '' Sophomore  Commencements," 
which  involved  suspension  from  College  of 
every  student  detected;  of  the  witty  bur- 
lesque programmes  anonymously  issued  at 
"  Senior  Speaking"  ;  of  tricks  on  travelling 
circuses,  as  when  the  boys  dragged  Bar- 
num's  ''  Car  of  Juggernaut "  by  night  to  the 
canal,  and  submerged  it  in  the  raging  waters ; 
of  amateur  negro  minstrels  and  dramatic 
shows ;  of  the  various  forms  of  initiation, 
with  the  riding  of  the  goat ;  of  mock  duels, 
in  which  unsophisticated  Freshmen  were 
made,  as  they  believed,  to  kill  their  man ;  and 
hundreds  of  characteristic  student  pranks, 
always  original,  and  often  laughable.  But 
time  and  space  are  wanting  for  more  than  a 
sketch.  No  college  has  a  life  more  crammed 
with  the  mirth  and  humor  of  youthful  exu- 
berance ;  none  is  richer  in  historic  associa- 
tion and  sacred  tradition ;  none  more  free 

108 


PEINCETON  — OLD  AND  NEW 

from  vicious  influence  and  corrupting  ex- 
ample. The  atmosphere  of  Princeton  has 
ever  conduced  to  health  and  happiness, 
physical,  mental,  and  moral.  Her  sons  look 
back  with  pride  and  pleasure,  not  only  to 
the  solid  instruction  received  at  her  hands, 
but  to  the  royal  times  spent  beneath  her 
shades. 

Ah,  happy  years!  once  more  who  would  not  be 
a  boy! 


i            jiggt>-^ 

teJ. 

^'                     -^. 

^^^ 

=1'::. 

109 


